
■HHHH 

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'i LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. \ 

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| UNITED STATES OP AMERICA,. | 



MONKS, POPES, 



AND 



Their Political Intrigues, 



BY 



4 

JOHN ALBERGER. 



" Like lambs have we crept into pozuer ; like wolves have we 
used it; like dogs have we been driven out/ like eagles shall we 
renew our youth." — St. Francis Borgia. 

li Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" — Washington. 






IjST one volume. 




BALTIMORE: 



1371. 

a 







Entered according to Act of Congress In the year 1371, by 

JOHX AI/BEKGEK, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



PR E FA C E. 



The object of the present work is to show the political 
nature of the Catholic church, and its treasonable 
designs with regard to the American republic. 

In the course of the following pages the author has 
endeavored to show that the Catholic Church is intrin- 
sically a gigantic conspiracy against the liberties of the 
world ; ingenious in its construction, opulent in its re- 
sources, extensive in its ramifications, and formidable in 
its character. In proof of this assertion he submits to 
the consideration of the reader a mass of irrefragable 
authority, and indisputable historical incidents. The 
authorities on which he chiefly relies are papal bulls, 
briefs, and encyclical letters ; the canons of Catholic 
councils ; Catholic periodicals under the supervision of 
priests, such as the Civita Cattolica, Bronsoris Review, 
the Boston Pilot, the Tablet, the Rambler, the Shepherd 
of the Valley, the Paris Univers ; also the works of 
Dens, the author of the Catholic system of Divinity; 
of Llorente, the secretary of the Spanish Inquisition; 
of Bellarmine, the celebrated Catholic controversialist ; 
of Ferraris, the author of the Catholic Ecclesiastical 



PKEFA-CE. 

Dictionary ; of Fra Paola, the Catholic ecclesiastical 
historian ; of St. Thomas Aquinas, entitled by the 
church " the Angelic Doctor" " the Angel of the School," 
" the Fifth Doctor ;" of St. Bernard, called " the Honeyed 
Teacher" and his works " Streams from Paradise ;' r of 
Labbeus, of St. Liquori, of Moscovius, and of a host of 
other oracles of Catholicism. 

By means of these authorities the veil of piety which 
conceals and decorates the papal church is partly drawn 
aside, and her monarchial character, political organiza- 
tion, despotic nature, ambitious designs and treasonable 
principles, are distinctly presented to view. 

The author pretends to no originality. The diction 
and logic are, of course his own, but the facts and prin- 
ciples upon which he bases his charges are the avowals 
of the church, the records of history, and the official 
affirmations of civilized nations. 

The Infidels, as faithful sentinels on the watch tower 
of liberty, have often uttered the cry of warning ; the 
Protestant pulpit has at intervals startled from its 
drowsy slumbers, and echoed the same alarm* but nei- 
ther the one nor the other has been able to arouse the 
people from their profound slumber. Gavazzi has lec- 
tured, Hogan, Colton, Hopkins have written, but so 
profound and death-like is the torpidity which holds 
the senses of Americans in indifference, that the warn- 
ings of writers and speakers have died away with the 



PREFACE. 

tones in which they were uttered. But Americans must 
awake — they will awake — if not soon enough to avert 
the impending doom overhanging their country and 
their posterity, yet soon enough ! alas, too soon ! to 
weep in despair over their present apathy and indiffer- 
ence, amid the ruins of their republic. 

JOHN ALBERGER, 

Baltimore, Md., July 4th, 1871, 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Catholicism a Political Organization. * 6 

CHAPTER II. 

Political Machinery of the Papal Power, . .15 

CHAPTER III. 

Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude, . . 22 

CHAPTER IV. 

Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence, . . 32 

CHAPTER V. 

Vow of Silent Contemplation. Part First, . 40 

" Second, . 46 
11 Third, . 35 

CHAPTER VI. 

Monastic Vow of Poverty, . . .85 

CHAPTER VII. 

Monastic Vow of Celibacy, . . . 106 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience, . 129 

CHAPTER IX. 

Pagan Origin of the Monastic Orders, . . 136 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER X. 

Popes — their Pretensions, Elections, Character 

and Administrations, ... . . 153 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Papal Monarchy — Crown, Banner, Cabinet, 
Court, Decrees, Jurisdiction, Coinage, Army 
and Navy, Revenues, Oaths and Spies, . . 181 

The Papal Monarchy. Section Two. The Pope's 
Direct Authority ; his Opposition to Marriage ; 
to Slavery ; his Claim to Temporal Power on 
the Forged Decretal Letter of Constantine ; on 
the Fictitious Gift of Pepin ; on the Pretended 
Donation of Charlemagne ; on the Disputed 
Bequest of Matilda, Duchess of Tuscany ; the 
Title of Pope a Usurpation ; the Papal Artful 
Policy ; the State of Italy under the Papal 
Government, ..... 207 

CHAPTER XII. 

Papal Political Intrigues in England — Papal ' 
Machinery ; Intrigues under the Reigns of 
Henry II. ; of King John ; of Henry VII. ; of 
Charles I. ; of Charles II. ; of James II. ; of 
William and Mary, . . . .226 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Papal Political Intrigues in France — During the 
Reigns of Clovis ; of Childeric III. ; of Pepin ; 
of Charlemagne ; of Hugh Capet ; of Philip 
IV. ; of Louis XII. ; of Francis I. ; of Francis 
II. ; of Charles IX. ; of Henry IV. ; of Louis 
XIII. ; of Louis XIV., . . . .256 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Papal Political Intrigues in Germany — Under the 
Reigns of Otho I.; of Henry IV.; of Henry 
V. ; of Frederic I. ; of Frederic II. ; of Conrad 
IV. ; of Albert I. ; of Henry VII. ; of Louis of 
Bavaria; of Charles IV.; of Sigismund ; of 
Charles V. ; of Ferdinand II.; Papal Intrigues 
in Austria; in Prussia; and in the Nether- 
lands, 289 

CHAPTER XV. 

Papal Political Intrigues in Portugal and Spain — 
Under the Reigns of Alphonso I. ; Sancho II. ; 
Dionysus ; John II. ; Emanuel ; John III. ; 
Sebastian ; Philip II. ; Joseph I. ; Maria Fran- 
cesca Isabella ; John VI. ; Pedro VI. ; and 
Dona Maria, - ... 323 

In Spain — Under the Reigns of Recared L; 
Charles V.; Philip II.: Philip III.; Charles 
II. ; Charles III. ; Charles IV. ; and Ferdi- 
nand VII, 336 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Papal Intrigues Respecting the United States ; 
Catholic Persecution ; Protestant Persecution ; 
Catholics in the Revolutionary War ; in the 
late Rebellion ; Catholic Enmity to Civil and 
Religious Liberty ; an Alliance formed for the 
Subversion of the American Republic ; the 
Duke of Richmond's Letter ; Catholic Immi- 
gration ; Progress of Catholicism ; the Repub- 
lic in Imminent Danger ; Union the Only Means 
of Salvation; Conclusion, . , . 348 



CHAPTER I. 

Catholicism, a Political Organization. 

Guizot, speaking of the Christian Church, says: "I say 
the Christian Church, and not Christianity, between 
which a broad distinction is to be made." (Gen. Hist. 
Civilization, Lecture 11, p. 48.) The Catholic Church 
has little except the name of Christianity, while it is 
secretly a political organization to establish " the suprem- 
acy of the Pope over all persons and things," which, 
according to Bellarmine's view, "is the main substance 
of Christianity." 

If we have recourse to the lexicon to ascertain the 
signification of the term religion, we may arrive at a 
definite conclusion respecting its classical use : but if we 
are guided in our inquiry by the popular acceptation, 
we will discover that its definitions are as numerous as the 
inhabitants of the globe, and as various as their fea- 
tures. We have Natural religion, Pagan religion, Hin- 
doo religion, Jewish religion, Christian religion, and 
Mahometan religion. Among Christian sects some be- 
lieve religion to consist in individual feeling, some in 
baptism, some in reverence for the clergy, some in 
problematical creeds and dogmas, some in observances 
of church ordinations, some in rhapsodies, and some in a 
species of sentimentalism. 

The Boston Pilot says: "There can be no religion 

without an Inquisition ;" but Thomas Paine, with nobler 

philosophy, thinks "religious duties consist in doing 

justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fel- 
1* 



6 CATHOLICISM A 

low creatures happy." The diversity and discordance 
which have arisen respecting the import of this term, 
originate from its compound nature adapting it to desig- 
nate one idea, or a variety of ideas. But while we rarely 
encounter two persons exactly concurring in an opinion 
of what is religion, we find all readily admitting that it 
essentially consists in just principles and correct conduct. 
Principles are the fountains of thought and feeling; to 
he just, they must be formed in accordance with truth 
and reason. Conduct to he correct must he in harmony 
with the rights of others, and the principles and designs 
of the human organism. According to this definition, 
religion may exist with or without ceremonial observ- 
ances. All forms are merely external appendages, un- 
essential to the nature of religion, and as distinct from 
it as the casket is from the gem, or the body from the 
vital principle. If this definition should be construed 
into a definition of mere morality, it cannot invalidate 
any objection founded on it to Catholicism, as every 
such objection will then become demonstrative proof 
that the Catholic Church is not only destitute of reli- 
gion, but even of morality. 

The signification of a corporate organization is well 
understood, but how shall we ascertain its principles 
and designs ? Not from the tenor of its professions ; but 
from the nature of its constitution, the tendency of its 
measures, the sanctions which it has given, the recogni- 
tions which it has made in its official capacity ; and 
above all, from the avowals it has uttered, under such 
a prosperous condition of affairs as made disguise unne- 
cessary. In courting popular favor, an organization 
concocted to subvert the rights and interests of the 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. t 

people, would, from motives of policy, be prompted to 
conceal its nature and design ; but when wealth and 
power bad sufficiently fortified its security to enable it 
to scorn arid defy public opinion, it would then as 
naturally unfold its latent principles, as a summer's 
sun would batch an innocently loooking cluster of eggs 
into a nest of poisonous asps. 

If among the members of an organization, which pro- 
fesses to be of an exclusively religious character, men 
should be found who are unquestionably religious or 
moral, this fact would no more prove it to be a religious 
or moral institution, than would the membership of the 
same persons to a railroad or municipal corporation 
prove such a corporation to be a religious and not a secu- 
lar organization. But if at periods in its history, its most 
irreproachable and credible members should denounce it 
as a political power, and labor to transform it into a 
purely religious institution, and for such a /'damna- 
ble heresy" were burnt alive, and their ashes thrown 
into a river to prevent the people from worshipping 
them, what would be the legitimate inference from such 
facts ? Would it not be that it claimed to be a political 
organization ? that it was high treason in its estimation to 
question its right to this character ? and that to utter 
such a question in its domains was to provoke its 
heaviest penalty? Did not all these facts occur in 
Rome respecting Arnold of Brecia ? ' And in Catholic 
history have not similar facts, from his time down to 
the Reformation, been incarnadined in human blood, 
too deeply for audacity to deny or time to obliterate ? 

But what is a religious organization ? If religion is 
moral goodness, a religious organization must be an em- 



8 CATHOLICISM A 

bodiment of its principles, a practical exemplification 
of its maxims, and a scheme in measures and policy 
adapted to extend the observance of its obligations. 
Such an organization must be consistent with itself, and 
in harmony with the natural principles of man. In 
integrity it must be invulnerable ; in adherence to right 
inflexible; in hostility to wrong, uncompromising. It 
must be the champion of the rights of human nature ; 
the friend of freedom, equality and liberality ; the enemy 
of bigotry, intolerance, and despotism. Its claims must 
be commended by truth ; its measures sanctioned by 
reason and conscience ; its triumphs won by argument 
and persuasion. Its hands must be unstained with 
blood. It must never perpetrate a fraud, nor descend 
to intrigue, nor dissemble, nor cherish malice, nor slan- 
der an opponent, nor traffic for self-aggrandizement, nor 
prostitute its principles to political objects, nor accom- 
modate itself to the vices of any age or country. Amid 
general corruption it must always be pure, amid bigotry 
it must always be tolerant, amid oppression it must 
always advocate the cause of justice, and amid ignorance 
the cause of education. 

Such are some of the essential characteristics of a 
religious or moral organization. Any departure from 
them in an institution, proves its secularism. No church 
in which they form not a distinguishing feature, has any 
claims to be a religious or moral corporation. 

Now when we see an institution, professing to be of 
an exclusively religious character, organizing its depart- 
ments upon a financial basis; enjoining on its members 
the vow of unconditional obedience, in order to subject 
them to its despotic domination; the vow of absolute 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 9 

poverty, in order to enable them more successfully to 
administer to the increase of its wealth; the vow of 
celibacy, in order to prevent them from having legiti- 
mate heirs, to divert the ecclesiastical possessions from the 
church ; when we see it establishing schools to select and 
mould to its designs the most promising among youth, 
instituting universities to enrich itself by the sale of 
their honors, absolving sins for money, selling indul- 
gences for the commission of premeditated crime, erect- 
ing missionary stations among Pagans for the purpose of 
traffic and emolument, manufacturing evidence, com- 
mitting forgeries, and corrupting and interpolating the 
text of ancient authors, denouncing reason, crushing 
liberty, circumscribing knowledge, anathematizing those 
who disbelieve in its arbitrary dogmas, torturing 
those who question its supreme authority, burning 
those who oppose its pretensions ; having a national cab- 
inet, ministerial offices, accredited ambassadors, main- 

9 

taining a standing army, a naval force, religious military 
orders to extend and enlarge its domains, carrying a 
national banner, wearing a political crown, declaring 
war, concluding national covenants, coining money, 
and exercising all the rights of an acknowledged inde- 
pendent monarchy, it is more than credulity can admit, 
to concede that such an organization is not a corrupt, 
cruel, despotic, and political institution. That such is 
the constitution of the Catholic Church is a fact, attested 
by the existing Papal Government, and by the spirit and 
acts of its past history ; and that it is now what in the 
past it has been, is established by the unanimous testi- 
mony of its acknowledged expounders. 

Simplicity has been amused by modern Catholic apol- 



10 CATHOLICISM A 

ogists, who assert that the Papal monarch has resigned 
his former pretensions to "universal temporal sovereignty, 
and that he now merley maintains his right to supreme 
spiritual authority. But this subterfuge can mislead only 
a superficial, ignorant mind. As spiritual sovereignty is 
absolute dominion over reason and conscience, it una- 
voidably involves temporal sovereignty ; nay, temporal 
sovereignty of the most despotic and unlimited authori- 
ty. Reason and conscience lay at the foundation of all 
political power ; and if Catholicism is adapted to govern 
them, it transcends in despotism the most ingeniously 
contrived monarchy that tyranny has ever elaborated, 
or by which the faculties of man have ever been en- 
thralled. Spain, Russia, or any other government is 
less tyrannical in its constitution than is the Catholic 
Church. He who would establish the contrary opinion, 
must first obliterate the Papal bulls, the decrees of the 
Councils, and the authorities of the Catholic Church; 
he must go to Rome and convert the present Pope and 
his college of Cardinals ; nay, he must attend the coming 
(Ecumenical Council and induce it to annul the canons 
of all the previous Councils, and to declare that all the 
preceding Popes were " damnable heretics," and have 
them accordingly excommunicated. These preliminary 
steps must be taken before he can avoid absurdity or 
the imputation of wilful prevarication. 

But the Papal See has never resigned its preposterous 
claim to universal temporal sovereignty. The bulls and 
canons asserting this pretension have never been an- 
nulled. They still form the canon law of the Church. 
No official declaration has announced an abrogation of 
them. The Pope's reiterated and blasphemous claim to 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 1 1 

infallibility precludes the possibility of such a sensible 
act. Infallibility is inconsistent with change of prin- 
ciple or error of conduct, and when the Church of Rome 
arrogates such a divine attribute, she avers that her past 
history indicates her present character and future in- 
tentions. In this opinion all her authorities concur. 
Bishop Kendrick says : " All doctrine of definitions 
already made by general Councils and former Pontiffs 
are marks which no Titian can remove!'' (Primacy, p. 
356). Brownson says: "What the Church -has done, 
what she has expressly or tacitly approved in the past, 
is exactly what she will do, expressly or tacitly ajyprove, 
in the future, if the same circumstances occur." (Re- 
view, Jan. 1854). Again : " The Catholic dogma, in 
regard to every subject whatever, has always been the 
same from the beginning, remains always unchangeably 
the same, and will always continue in every j^art of the 
world immutable." (Review, Jan., 1850). • Again: 
" Catholicity, as long as it continues Catholicity, cannot 
be carried to excess. It will be all or nothing." (Re- 
view, Jan., 1854). The editors of the Civilita Cattolica, 
the Pope's organ at Rome, say : " From the darkness of 
the catacombs she ( the Catholic Church ) dictated laws 
to the subjects of Emperors, abrogating decrees, whether 
plebeian, senatorial or imperial, when in conflict with 
Catholic ordinances. To-day, as in all time, the Church 
commands the spiritual part of man ; and, in ruling 
over the spirit, she rules the body, rules over riches, 
over science, over affections, over interests, over associ- 
ations — rules, in fine, over monarchs and their minis- 
ters." 

The Dublin Tablet, Feb. 24, 1865, the accredited organ 



12 CATHOLICISM A 

of Romanism in the British realm, says : " The Pope is 
at this moment interfering in Piedmont, defending one 
class of citizens against the government; and in the 
House of Representatives (of the United States), a 
Christian (Mr. Chandler, in his speech, Jan., 1865), 
denies the right ! Governments may and do prohibit 
good works, and the Pope interferes. They also com- 
mit evil, and the Pope interferes; and good Christians 
(Catholics) prefer the Popes authority to that of the 
State. The godless ( non-Catholic ) colleges of Ireland, 
the troubles of Piedmont, all bear witness against the 
unchristian opinion." The Paris Univers says : "A 
heretic examined and convicted by the Church, used to 
be delivered over to the secular authority to be punished 
with death. Nothing has appeared to us more neces- 
sary. More than 100,000 persons perished in conse- 
quence of the heresy of "Wickliffe, and a still greater 
number for that of John Huss; and it would be im- 
possible to count the bloodshed caused by Luther, and it 
is not yet over." De Pratt, formerly an Abbe of the 
Pope, says: "The Pope is chief of 150,000,000 of fol- 
lowers. Catholicism cannot have less than 500,000 
ministers. The Pope Commands more subjects than 
any sovereign — more than many sovereigns together. 
These have subjects only on their own territory, the 
Pope commands subjects on the territory of all sovereigns' 
(Flag of the Union.) But the testimony is voluminous, 
and I forbear further quotations on this point. 

To understand, then, the past history of the Catholic 

Church, is of paramount importance to every freeman. 

"What is it ? It is the development of her nature. It 

is the unfolding of her treason to the world. It is un- 

2 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 13 

covering the cruelty and despotism concealed under her 
religious profession. It is the revelation of her animos- 
ity to the rights of men, to the progress of society, and 
to the exercise of reason and conscience. It shows her 
to be a secret political organization, skilfully constructed 
for the acquisition of supreme political power, and hypo- 
critically disguised under the semblance of religion. If 
in her infancy she did not always avow her ambitious 
designs, she always secretly cherished them ; and, if in 
her adversity she has moderated her tone, she has not 
her natural thirst for secular power. As she grew in 
strength, she grew in arrogance and despotism ; and 
when, by a system of artful intrigues and bold usurpa- 
tions, she had created a colossal power that overawed 
the united monarchies of Christendom, she unsheathed 
the double sword, the symbol of ecclesiastical and polit- 
ical power, and asserted her right, as Vicar of Christ, 
to rule with or in preference to Princes, invaded the 
rights and liberties of independent nations, crowned 
and uncrowned monarchs, destroyed freedom every- 
where, anathematized, shackled, tortured and burnt all 
who opposed her monarchical pretensions. Her trium- 
phal processions have been the most magnificent when 
her hands were the bloodiest, and her Te Deum was 
chaunted with the most fervor when the smoke of her 
stakes ascended in the thickest volumes, and the gore 
shed by the double sword streamed in the broadest and 
deepest currents. 

"When Time, the avenger, hurled her from her des- 
potic throne, she supplicated, because she could not 
command, and moderated her pretensions, because she 
dare not assert them. But if she presumes not now to 



14 CATHOLICISM A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 

tear the crown from the head of the mighty, who would 
annihilate her for her audacious attempt; if she does 
not now absolve subjects from allegiance to their gov- 
ernments, whose artillery, to avenge the insult would 
be marshalled against her ; if she does not now attempt 
to burn at the stake those who reject her absurdities, 
and who would burn her for an attempt — the reason of 
the extraordinary change in her infallible holiness is 
palpable. It is not because she has discarded the doc- 
trines consecrated by so many bulls, battles and trea- 
ties, but because she cannot carry them out without 
peril to her existence. But let Brownson, whom Pope 
Pius IX., in a letter dated April 29, 1854, blessed with 
an apostolic benediction for services rendered, solve this 
point. He says : " The Church, who possesses an ad- 
mirable gift of discretion, has prudently judged that she 
would not declare all things explicitly from the begin- 
ning, but at a given time, and in suitable circumstances, 
would bring into light something which was hitherto in 
concealment, and covered with a certain obscurity. (Re- 
view, January, 1854). 



CHAPTER II. 

The Political Machinery of the Papal Power. 

That the Holy Catholic Church is artfully constituted 
to subjugate all secular and ecclesiastical power under 
its authority, and that its object is not to advance the 
interests of moral goodness, but to acquire temporal 
dominion, must be admitted by every one that fully 
comprehends the principles upon which its religious 
Orders are organized. These Orders were founded by 
Catholic saints and Bishops. They have been corf- 
iirmed by Popes and Councils. And though they have 
been suppressed, on account of their corrupt tendency 
and political intrigues, in kingdom after kingdom, yet 
in pontifical bulls they have been defended as being the 
most useful and pious class of the Catholic community. 
They may therefore be regarded as having been author- 
atively acknowledged to be constituted in harmony with 
the principles and designs of the Catholic Church. In 
fact they form the body of its organization, as the Pope 
does its head, and the Councils do its members. 

In investigating the intrinsic nature of these orders, 
we are naturally led back to that period of their history 
which allowed them an unembarrassed development. 
As they are sanctioned by a church which claims the 
attribute of infallibility, whatever changes the advance 
of civilization has effected in them, must be regarded 
as a mere prudent accommodation to existing circum- 
stances, to be tolerated no longer than they are impera- 
tive. If in 1900 the Catholic Church gain the suprem- 



16 POLITICAL MACHINERY 

acy in the United States which she hopes to gain, she 
will restore the despotism and superstition which char- 
acterized her domination during the dark ages. Pope 
Gregory XVI. in his Encyclical Epistle of 1832, says : 
" Ever bearing in mind, the universal church suffers 
from every novelty, as well as the admonition of Pope 
St. Agatho, that from what has been regularly defined 
nothing can be taken away — no innovation introduced 
there, no addition made, but that it must be preserved 
untouched as to words and meaning." 

The religious Orders consist of anchorites, monks, 
nuns and knights. The anchorites in general lived separ- 
ately, but sometimes in communities. The nuns lived 
in perpetual solitude, as also did the monks, with the 
exception of such as devoted themselves to the adminis- 
tration of the public affairs of the church. The knights 
were soldiers of the cross, instituted to defend and 
propagate the Komish faith by the force of arms. The 
orders differed from one another chiefly in the style of 
their dress, in degrees of rigidness of discipline, and in 
the assumption of additional vows. They all assumed 
the vow of absolute poverty, of perpetual celibacy, and 
of unconditional obedience to the rules of their Order, 
and to the commands of their superior. Each member 
was subject to the absolute authority of his superior, 
who resided in the monastery ; each superior to the ab- 
solute authority of his general, who resided at Rome, 
and each general to the absolute authority of the Pope, 
who was the head and the chief engineer of the whole 
machine. By means of this machinery the monarchi- 
cal power of the Pope has been, and is still, although 
the machinery in some places is somewhat damaged, 



OF THE PAPAL POWER. 



17 



exerted in every kingdom, in every republic, in every 
city, and over every Catholic mind in Christendom. 

When a novice assumed the monastic vows, he be- 
came the absolute property, or chattel, of the institution 
which he entered, as irreversibly as if he had signed, 
sealed, and delivered a deed conveying to it his soul 
and body. By this act of piety he yielded up his 
personal freedom, and became ironed with the shackles 
of an eternal slavery. A culprit might hope for liberty 
when his time would expire, but the recluse could only 
expect disenthralment by death. If disappointed in 
finding the holiness which he fancied to hallow the 
place, or if, relieved of the misanthropic gloom, the 
isolating superstition, or the delusive representations 
which had induced him to enter the monastic walls, he 
should escape, he was pursued, and if captured remanded 
back by the civil authorities to the cold solitude of his 
prison house. Not only have these cruel deeds been 
perpetrated in the dark ages, but in this age of civiliz- 
ation — not only in despotic Europe, but in free Amer- 
ica. True, the civil authority in Protestant countries 
has not interfered, but Catholic ingenuity has discov- 
ered means equally efficacious. How many escaped 
nuns have unaccountably disappeared from society? 
What infamous means have Catholic priests adopted to 
fill their nunneries ? A young girl in Baltimore, who 
had just passed her sixteenth year, w T as carried to a 
nunnery, and although her mother and relatives invoked 
the interposition of the civil authorities, yet they were 
unable to reclaim her, because she had arrived at age. 
Who that has any conception of the numerous applica- 
tions of distracted mothers at the police station-houses 
2* 



18 POLITICAL MACHINERY 

of some of our large cities, for their children, who have 
mysteriously disappeared ; or that has read the account 
recently published in the New York papers, (of the 
recovery of the body of a young female who had been 
drowned, when in one day eight mothers called at the 
dead-bouse to see if the corpse was not that of a 
daughter whom each had missed), can avoid believing 
that if the nunneries were open to public inspection, 
some of these mysteries might be resolved ? 

After the ceremonies were concluded which sepulchred 
the novice forever in his monastic cloister, his thoughts, 
feelings, and desires were henceforth to be regulated, 
not by the operations of the brain, but by the rules of 
his Order. The most secret recesses of his mind were 
to be opened to the inspection of his confessor. For 
the intrusion of a natural thought he was liable to the 
infliction of the severest penalty ; and the voice of the 
superior was the only reason, the only conscience, the 
only instinct he was at liberty to obey. Subjected to a 
systematic course of rigid discipline adapted to paralyze 
reason, suppress conscience and stifle instinct, he became 
a passionless, soulless, mechanical automaton, as well 
formed to bless, pray and preach, as to curse, forge and 
murder, and equally ready to do either at the man- 
date of his superior. 

"When the superstition of the masses, the ignorance of 
princes, the ambition of politicians, and the intrigues 
of the priesthood had favored or cultivated the growth 
of Catholicism until it was matured into a colossal mon- 
archy, it was discovered that while its centre was in 
Rome, its branches extended to every section of Chris- 
tendom. Its monasteries conveniently and strategeti- 



OF THE PAPAL POWER. i9 

cally located in different parts of the world, its confess- 
ors penetrating the secret designs and wishes of states- 
men and princes, its spiritual advisers scrutinizing the 
conduct of opulent and distinguished personagas, its 
spies, under the license of Papal indulgences, profess- 
ing all opinions, and entering all associations and socie- 
ties, and its agents in constant communication with 
their superiors, their superiors with their generals, and 
their generals with the Pope, and all acting in concert 
in every part of Christendom toward the accomplishment 
of one grand design ; the See of Rome became the recep- 
tacle of accurate accounts of the condition, events and 
characters of the various sections of the globe, and was 
capable of improving every occurrence to its best advan- 
tage, and of commanding in its support the power of 
every locality. As nothing was too great to transcend 
its aspirations, so nothing was too minute to escape its 
scrutiny. Monarchs, legislators, judges, jurists, states- 
men, generals, bankers, merchants, actors, schools, col- 
leges, men, women, children — all were objects which its 
spiritual machinery sought to control. Invisible, but' 
omniscient, the Pope was seen nowhere, while his power 
was felt everywhere. He touched the secret springs of 
his machinery and the world was roused to arms or 
silenced to submission; kings were astounded with ap- 
plauding subjects, or sat powerless on their thrones; 
armies rushed to battle or grounded their arms ; states- 
men were blasted, none could tell for what crime ; mis- 
creants were ennobled, none could tell for what virtue; 
men's business or domestic affairs were disarranged, 
none could tell for what cause. So sudden, secret and 
terrible were the ' revolutions wrought in the fate of in- 



20 POLITICAL MACHINERY 

dividuals and nations, that they seemed like the venge- 
ful interposition of Providence, and the mystery which 
concealed the hidden cause led the ignorant and stupe- 
fied world to interpret them, under the instruction of a 
crafty priesthood, as the manifestations of divine wrath. 
When we calmly consider the disposition of the 
Catholic organization, it seems that all the inventions of 
ancient tyraDny were condensed in it with improved 
malignancy. The ambition of Csesar, which hurried him 
on to the destruction of the liberties of his country, 
while he imagined the cold hand of his departed mother 
clasped his heart ; the jealousy of Commodus, who never 
spared what he could suspect ; the cruelty of Mithri- 
dates, who fed on poison to escape the secret revenge of 
his injured subjects; the inhumanity of Caligula, who 
wished the world had but one neck, that he might cut 
off its disobedient head at one blow, are, indeed, ter- 
rible examples of despotism, but they were limited to 
one nation, and left reason and conscience unshackled. 
But in the Papal organization we find a scrutiny which 
penetrated all secrets, a despotism that ironed reason 
and conscience, an ambition that grasped heaven and 
earth, a malignity that blasted for time and eternity — a 
policy in which all the elements of bigotry, terror, mal- 
ice, duplicity and obduracy were incorporated in their 
most frightful proportion. Before this conception we 
might well shudder, for its irons are secretly manacling 
our own limbs. Its triumphs, written in the blood of 
the millions it has butchered, commemorated by the 
monuments of ecclesiastical rubbish which it has erected, 
seen in the gloom of superstition it has cast upon the 
world, utter a solemn admonition to the freemen of 



OF THE PAPAL POWER. 21 

America. Think not that the present attainment in 
civilization is proof against this boundless Upas — this 
all-blasting tree, whose sap is poison and whose fruit is 
death. Think of Egyptian, Asiatic, Grecian civiliza- 
tion, and tremble lest their fate become your own. Let 
not confidence beget an apathy that may close the eye 
of vigilance, or enervate the powers of resistance. Lis- 
ten to Pope Pius IX. when he declares that " the Cath- 
olic religion, with its rights, ought to be exclusively 
dominant, in such sort that every other worship shall 
be banished and interdicted." Listen to Father Hecker, 
who says : " The Catholic Church now numbers one- 
third of the American population, and if its member- 
ship increase for the next thirty years, as it has for the 
thirty years past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and 
be bound to take the country and keep it." Read the 
statistics and learn the fearful probability of the ful- 
fillment of Hecker's prophesy. Then dream no more 
that your liberties are safe. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Monastic Vow of Perpetual Solitude. 

The religious Orders were the fundamental principle of 
the growth of the Papal monarchy. These orders as- 
sumed certain vows, the nature and tendency of which 
we will proceed to investigate in the spirit of candid 
inquiry. The first vow to which we will invite atten- 
tion, is the vow of perpetual solitude and seclusion. 
Although at the first introduction of these monastic 
orders into the church, this vow, and those which we 
shall hereafter examine, were not formally assumed, yet 
they were invariably observed ; and in the year 529, 
under the auspices of St. Benedict, the express assump- 
tion of them became an indispensable condition of 
membership. Until the tenth century, the hermits and 
the Benedictine monks and nuns were the only Catholic 
Orders that existed ; the former generally, and the latter 
entirely, lived in solitary seclusion. 

The devout misanthropy of the hermits induced them 
to select for their habitations the most gloomy, cheerless, 
and inhospitable regions they could hunt up. Piously 
scorning the salubrious and magnificent localities, so 
prodigally furnished by nature, they constructed their 
huts at the bottom of dismal pits, among the cliffs of 
rugged rocks, in barren deserts, and in solitary wilder- 
nesses. Some lived under trees, others under shelving 
rocks, some on the top of poles, and others in the deserted 
caverns of wild beasts. Some buried themselves in 
the gloomy depth of trackless forests, isolated from hu- 



SOLITUDE AND SECLUSION. 23 

man contiguity, and assimilated in aspect and habits 
to the brute creation. Their bodies divested of decent 
apparel, and covered with a profusion of hair, and their 
aspect horrid and revolting beyond description, the 
hermits sought to acquire the reputation of saints by 
attaining the nearest possible approximation to wild 
beasts. Another class of these eccentric devotees con- 
structed a number of contiguous dungeons, and formed 
themselves into a sort of monastic community. In 
these vaults they imprisoned themselves for life, the 
door being locked, and sometimes walled up, a small 
window only was allowed, through which to receive 
aliment and give pious advice. In these dungeons they 
manacled their limbs with ponderous chains, encircled 
their necks with massive collars, and clothed their 
legs with heavy greaves. In the depth of winter they 
would immerse themselves in icy water, and sing 
psalms. To make themselves revolting ; to imitate the 
habits of wild animals", until they became more horrible, 
because more unnatural; to subject themselves to vol- 
untary torture, severe and bloody flagellations, were 
deemed the highest acts of piety. Whatever conspired 
to comfort they considered profane ; whatever was pleas- 
urable they avoided as sinful ; and whatever was ab- 
surd, filthy, and disgusting, they imagined allied them 
to gods and angels. St. Anthony, who was so holy that 
he never washed himself, nor wore any apparel except 
a shirt, was canonized by the Catholic Church for his 
extraordinary attainment in sanctification. The appro- 
bation which the church so readily conferred on oddity 
and singularity might at the first appear surprising, 
but when we recollect the immense pecuniary and 



24 MONASTIC VOW OF 

political advantage she derived from them, we will no 
longer doubt her motive, nor avaricious sagacity. A 
singular custom suggested by this ludicrous institution 
may be worthy of a passing notice. The abbots of the 
monasteries, in order to dispose of a brother abbot, 
whose celebrity surpassed their own, or whose circum- 
ventive genius they feared, or who had excited their 
suspicion, jealousy or revenge, would congregate 
together, and declare that the fated brother had arrived 
at a degree of sanctification that better qualified 
him for the hermit's cell than for an abbotship of a 
monastery, and that to protect him from the contamina- 
tion of the world, and to enable him to perfect his holi- 
ness, it was necessary to wall him up in eternal seclu- 
sion. In accordance with this pious regard for their 
brother's sanctity, they adopted summary measures for 
its forcible execution. 

Silence, gloom and solitude, according most congeni- 
ally with the designs of the monastic institutions, they 
were generally located in sterile wastes, dense and 
trackless forests, and other localities adapted to excite 
the sensation of loneliness, dreariness and desolation ; 
but when secular considerations suggested they occu- 
pied picturesque and luxuriant localities, commanding 
the sublimest prospects of Nature. These edifices, 
which often rivalled gorgeous palaces, were nothing 
but religious penitentiaries, in which the inmates 
endured all the privations, and were shackled with all 
the irons with which criminals are punished in ordinary 
penal institutions ; and though they were ostensibly 
constructed for religious purposes, they were really de- 
signed for the infliction of punishment, in accordance 



PERPETUAL SOLITUDE. 25 

with the ecclesiastical code. "With regard to this code 
Guizot says : " The Catholic Church did not draw up a 
code like ours, which took account only of those crimes 
that are at the same time offensive to morals and dan- 
gerous to Society, and punishing them only because 
they bore this two-fold character ; but prepared a cata- 
logue of all those actions, criminal more particularly in 
a moral point of view, and punished all under the 
name of sins. (Gen. Hist. Civil., Lee. x., p. 118). In 
what light these religious penitentiaries have been re- 
garded by their inmates their eternal seclusion has pre- 
vented them from publicly divulging, but the few who 
have broken their enthralment, and the " heretics" 
who have been confined in them, have described them 
as the most intolerable of dungeons. In fact the mod- 
ern penitentiary system has originated from them. 
Guizot thinks this is one of the great blessings which 
Catholicism has bestowed on society — (see Gen. Hist. 
Civil., Lect. vi., p. 135). 

The vow of perpetual seclusion comprises a renuncia- 
tion of the pleasures and business of life, an abnegation 
of the claims of consanguinity, friendship and society ; 
and an abjuration of all filial, parental and natural 
affection. This vow is in contravention of the obliga- 
tions imposed on man by Nature, to improve society by 
contributing to the advancement of its financial, social, 
political and scientific welfare. It precludes the exer- 
cise, and consequent development, of the varied powers 
of the human organism. It surrenders the personal re- 
finement and moral strength which may be acquired by 
social intercourse, and conflict with opposing habits and 
principles. It ignores the imperative duty of under- 
3 



26 MONASTIC VOW OF 

standing and judiciously relieving human want and 
misery, and of aiding the execution of efficient schemes 
of public utility and philanthropy. It is not only in 
violation of the obligations of humanity, and the 
noblest principles of human enjoyment, but it debars 
the recluse from correcting any error into which he may 
have been betrayed by false representations, or an over- 
heated fancy ■ or, of modifying his condition according 
to the change which experience and reflection may have 
effected in his opinion and feelings. Yet, although such 
are the absurd nature and injurious consequences of the 
vow of perpetual seclusion, it is jiroposed by the church 
of Rome, as the surest means of obtaining the saneti- 
fication of the soul and the crown of eternal happiness. 
If to bury our talents, to wall ourselves up in a 
dungeon ; to sit for years upon a pole ; to scorn the soci- 
ety of human beings ; to reject the comforts of civil- 
ized life ; to retrograde into barbarism ; to assume the 
habits, and acquire the aspect of wild animals ; to im- 
prison ourselves where we can never respond to the 
demands of consanguinity, society, friendship and pa- 
triotism : where we can never contribute to the knowl- 
edge, wealth or prosperity of the country of our nativ- 
ity — if this is religion, then Catholicism has the honor 
of confirming the most revolting condensation of these 
monstrosities that has ever disgusted the spirit of civ- 
ilization. But if religion really consists in fair dealing, 
in noble deeds, in moral integrity amid moral turpi- 
tude, in individual purity amid general corruption, in 
unwavering virtue among the strongest incentives to 
guilt, then the organization that sanctions vows subvers- 
ive of these attainments cannot be admitted, con- 



PEKPETUAL SOLITUDE." 27 

sistently with, the most indulgent liberality, to be of a 
religious character. 

- Thus far in our judgment, we have presumed that 
the novices, in assuming their vow, were actuated by 
the laudable desire of obtaining the highest degree of 
-moral purity. This worthy ambition was doubtless the 
governing motive of a proportion of them. Either 
from the instigations of moral insanity, or from the va- 
garies of a distempered fancy, or from the misrepresen- 
tation of artful and designing priests, or from the des- 
pondency which misfortune is apt to engender in weak, 
or too sensitive minds, or from a misconception of the 
natural tendency of solitude, men and women have at 
times been led to assume the vows, and submit to the 
penance prescribed by the religious orders. But there 
were other motives equally, and perhaps more generally, 
active. Ludicrous as were their holy isolation and pen- 
ance, still the sanctity which the monks imitated, and 
the tortures which they self-imposed, were rewarded by 
a credulous and superstitious world with profound 
homage and admiration. By undergoing sufferings 
which appeared intolerable to human fortitude, they 
acquired the reputation of being sustained by divine 
agency ; and, as their popularity increased in propor- 
tion to their wretchedness, they labored to extend their 
fame by adding to their misery. Their sufferings and 
fortitude alike incomprehensible to human reason, an 
awe-struck fancy betrayed the public into the delusion 
that what it beheld was the results of superhuman 
sanctity ; of a sublime elevation above ordinary human- 
ity ; and of the interposition of divine power. These 
misconceptions, artfully cultivated by the priesthood, 



28 MONASTIC VOW OF 

extended the fame of the self-tormentors beyond the 
celebrity of heroes, poets and philosophers. Kings and 
queens visited them with superstitious reverence ; states- 
men consulted them on abstruse questions of govern- 
mental policy ; peace and war were made at their 
mandates ; and pilgrims from remote regions bowed at 
their feet and begged their blessing. Thus favored by 
the profound homage of all classes of Christendom, they 
were enabled with more facility than any other profes- 
sion to become opulent bishops, royal cardinals, or 
monarchical popes. Such being their eligibility to the 
honors and emoluments of the spiritual dignities of the 
church, vanity was quick to perceive that the anchorite's 
hut and the monk's cloister were the surest paths to 
universal adulation ; religion, that they were the most 
respectable methods of becoming honored in life, and 
worshipped after death ; avarice, that they were " the 
most available means of obtaining lucrative positions ; 
and ambition, that thay were the shortest roads to dig- 
nity and power. With these attractive facts glaring on 
the eye of sacred aspirants, it requires but little knowl- 
edge of human nature to conceive with what avidity 
the ambitious would crowd into the most repulsive 
cloisters ; with what eagerness they would adopt the 
revolting habits and ludicrous privations of the recluse ; 
and with what ingenuity they would indurate and tor- 
ture the body, in order to win the applause of the 
world, and the privilege of selecting its most advan- 
geous positions. Accordingly, monastery after monas- 
tery arose with sudden and astonishing rapidity, and 
their cells became supplied- — not with aspirants after 
holiness and heaven — but with aspirants after secular 



PERPETUAL SECLUSION, 29 

and ecclesiastical dignities, and the indolence, luxury, 
and licentiousness which they afforded. 

The pious flattery that was lavished on voluntary 
suffering, and the distinguished rewards which recom- 
pensed it, strongly tempted the feeble conscience of 
monks and hermits, to task their ingenuity in invent- 
ing contrivances for magnifying the apparent and 
diminishing the real sufferings of their self-imposed 
torture. By the aid of an improved invention an 
artful hypocrite could procure a greater reputation for 
sanctity than a contrite penitent, and become more eli- 
gible to the worldly honors and emoluments of the 
church. St. Simeon Stylites, who sat upon a ^eie for 
thirty years, convinced Christendom, by his wonderful 
absurdity, that he was miraculously supported ; while 
living he enjoyed its profoundest respect, and when 
dead was canonized by the Catholic Church. But an 
observer by describing the numerous gesticulations of 
this sainted mountebank, diclosed the secret of his arti- 
fice. By means of a system of gymnastics, he kept up 
a vigorous circulation of blood through his frame, and 
thus acqired a health and longevity which would have 
been incompatible with a state of inactivity. But it 
appears that he was tormented with an ulcer on the 
thigh, inflicted by the devil, who had tempted him to 
imitate Elijah in flying to heaven, but who maliciously 
smote him upon his raising his foot to make the ascen- 
sion. His mystical gesticulations not healing, but 
probably inflaming the wound, may have shortened the 
natural term of his miserable existence. As he had 
gradually arisen from a -pore of seven feet high to one 

of fifty feet high, if had not been for his vanity and 
3* 



30 • MONASTIC, yow OF 

his evil company he might have gained a still higher 
position ; but whether by this means he would ever 
have reached heaven may be questioned by astronomy 
and heresy : but there is no doubt he acquired by his 
folly and artifice the beatification of the Catholic 
Church. 

The apathy with which the self-tormenters endured 
their excruciating penance and the severe rigors of the 
seasons, was chiefly the effect of artificial callousness, 
induced by an ingenious discipline, calculated to destroy 
the susceptibility of the nervous system to the influence 
of external agents. A similar course of training has 
always been practiced by the religious orders of the 
Hindoos and the Mohametans, who, like those of the 
Catholic Church, endure self-imposed torture which 
seems to surpass human fortitude, and acquire by this 
species of ambition unbounded popularity. Even the 
uncleanness of the holy brotherhood was an artifice. It 
formed a protecting incrustation on the surface of the 
skin, which, by covering the the papilla?, the sentient, 
organs, or destroying their capacity for sensation, 
enable the hermits to endure without apparent emotion 
the cold winters and bleak winds of inhospitable for- 
ests. This secret is known and practised by some 
African tribes, upon whom washing is consequently in- 
flicted as a penalty for crimes. To the eye of supersti- 
tion, clouded with ignorance, and fascinated by the ignes 
fatui of sacred fiction, the calmness of the monks and 
hermits under torments and exposures which seemed 
insufferable to humanity, appeared a palpable demon- 
stration of miraculous interposition, and consecrated 
them in its estimation. Their acts, however, were as 



PERPETUAL SECLUSION". 31 

much tricks as are the mysterious capers of a conjurer. 
As the more artful and callous could endure the sever- 
ity of penitential acts with greater indifference than 
the candid and sensitive they acquired a higher repu- 
tation for holiness, advanced to the enjoyment of more 
distinguished honors, and finally became canonized as 
paragons of virtue and objects of adoration. 

Such are the nature and consequences of the vow of 
perpetual seclusion. Such is a portion of the " doc- 
trinal definition already made by the general councils 
and former pontiffs," which, according to Bishop Ken- 
drick, "are landmarks which no man can remove." 
(Primacy, p. 356). Such are some of the Catholic 
dogmas, which, " in regard to every subject whatever,' 
according to Brownson " have been always the same 
from the beginning, remain always unchangeably the 
same, and will always continue in every part of the 
world immutable." (Review, January, 1850). Such 
is in part " what the church has done, what she has 
tacitly or expressly approved in the past," and accord- 
ing to the same authority "is exactly what she will 
tacitly or expressly approve in the future, if the same 
circumstances occur." (Review, January, 1854). " The 
same circumstances" is the universal church, which Je- 
suit Hecker, in his recent speech in Chicago, thinks the 
United States needs, and which the people (Catholics) 
will at no distant day proclaim. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Monastic Vow of Perpetual Silence. 

A vow of perpetual silence was assumed by several 
religious orders ; but it was observed with different de- 
grees of austerity. Some monks passed their whole 
lives in profound silence ; others spoke on certain days 
of the week ; and others at particular hours of speci- 
fied days. The modern penitentiary regulations respect- 
ing the conversation of prisoners seem to have been 
derived from the singular customs of the dumb brother- 
hood. 

The members of the mute orders, perpetually con- 
cealing their features with their cowls, and their 
thoughts by their silence, appear to have concluded 
that secrecy was the substance of religion. He who 
could conceal the best, and preserve silence the longest, 
obtained among the devout the useful credit of possess- 
ing the most grace. The effusion of the Holy Ghost, 
which, by a prodigal distribution of tongues, and their 
clashing jargon, had set the primitive ecclesiastical 
council in an uproar, and which, by its powerfully 
stimulating qualities had turned so many cities up- 
side down, had a very different effect on the silent 
orders of the Catholic Church. While to the former it 
communicated intuitive knowledge of all languages, to 
the latter it interdicted as profane the use of any. To 
pass an entire life without uttering a word, was consid- 
ered by the dumb friars, as an unquestionable evidence 
of their having received the unutterable fulness of the 



PERPETUAL SILENCE. 33 

Holy Ghost. Whether the primitive church and the 
Catholic orders were blest with the influence of the 
same Holy Ghost, or whether the divine spirit politely 
accommodates the nature of his unction to the demands 
of particular ecclesiastical exigencies, seems to require 
some proof, before it can be rationally admitted that 
profound silence and distracting discord are effects of 
the same cause. 

But the question of truth and error is of a less intri- 
cate nature. Truth is candid, open and fearless ; error 
is hidden, intolerant and cowardly. The one challenges 
investigation ; the other denounces it ; the one Opens its 
breast to the scrutinizing gaze of the world ; the other 
conceals its features from the most intimate associate. 
If such is the fearlessness of truth, and such the 
cowardice of error, the' secrecy of the silent orders 
commends them less to the confidence which candor 
inspires, than to the suspicion which secrecy begets. 

Secrecy is most generally adopted to cover objection- 
able designs ; and, the profounder the former is, the 
more objectionable are the latter. I speak not of the 
secret signs by which benevolent societies recognize 
their members, but of those associations which, while 
they are professedly designed for religious purposes, 
conceal their principles and projects from public view. 
Although in some other respects secrecy may sometimes 
be suggested by discretion, yet it is often suggested by 
guilt. All that offend against the natural sentiments 
of propriety, shrink from the public gaze. Robbery, 
murder, and every other infraction of civil ordinations 
seek to shroud their intentions and machinations in the 
greatest secrecy. The traitor and the highwayman, 



34 MONASTIC VOW OF 

afar from the searching scrutiny of the inquisitive, re- 
tire to solitary forests, inaccessible retreats, and dismal 
caverns, to hold their conclaves and plot schemes of 
blood and depredation. Evasion, prevarication and 
disguise are the inseparable concomitants of guilt. So 
secret is crime that its perpetration can generally only 
be established by circumstantial evidence. Secrecy is, 
therefore, naturally calculated to excite suspicion ; it 
seldom means good ; it generally means evil ; some- 
times robbery, frequently murder, often treason, always 
some plot so antagonistical to reason and the welfare of 
society that its projectors are conscious that publicity 
would endanger, and perhaps defeat its execution. 

The shocking crimes which the pious monasteries con- 
cealed have frequently been divulged by those who 
have escaped from their cloisters, but what unutter- 
able deeds the taciturnity of the mute monks sanctioned 
may not be so clearly proved as naturally imagined. 
That it was exceedingly profitable will appear evident 
upon a moment's reflection. These dumb friars were 
confessors, and as they never uttered a word, they ac- 
quired the confidence of the most desperate criminals. 
The Jesuits, who could not disclose the startling secrets 
of their order without alarming the fears of temporal 
princes, confessed to none but to the silent monks. All 
the devout who contemplated the commission of the 
crimes of murder, sedition, or treason, preferred to un- 
bosom their designs to the taciturn fraternity, and re- 
ceive through their agency the absolution and indulg- 
ence of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. But the 
connivance cf the church at criminal deeds could be 
commanded only by the power of gold; and the amount 



PERPETUAL SILENCE. 85 

requisite for expiation was always in proportion to the 
atrociousness of the crime. Now, as the commission of 
the highest misdemeanors most imminently endangered 
the life and liberty of the perpetrators; it is as easy to 
see the munificent pecuniary advantages which perpet- 
ual silence obtained for the monks, as it is to see that 
the most flagitious criminals would prefer disclosing 
their intentions to the most silent lips. 

It may here be remarked, by way of explanation, 
that confessors are not bound, as is generally supposed, 
to inviolate secrecy. The secrets of the confessional 
may be communicated from one priest to another ; and, 
when a confessor desires to make public use of any in- 
formation which has been confessed to him, he adopts 
the artifice of requesting the informer to communicate 
the matter to him out of the confessional. 

The dumb friars, not less artful than secret, elabor- 
ated a system of sacred gesticulations, by which they 
managed to express their wants and desires with as 
much force as they could have done with their tongues. 
Although grimace and gesticulation were more clumsy 
and less varied in their signs than is vocal articulation, 
•yet by this means the dumb monks contrived, as occa- 
sion suggested, to describe, command, supplicate, scorn, 
imprecate, curse or bless. This odd device was well 
adapted to the non-committal policy of the religious 
orders, as it enabled them to affirm, deny, impugn, slan- 
der ; to threaten any dignity, anathematize any power, 
and commit any crime of which language is capable, 
without incurring responsibility, violating any legal 
enactment, rendering themselves amenable to any tribu- 
nal, or answerable for the breach of any code of honor. 



36 MONASTIC VOW OF 

The adoption of this ingenious device to avoid com- 
pliance with unnatural obligations, affords an instance 
of the singular duplicity into which the subtilty of pi- 
ous craft may betray human nature. The misfortune 
of being born a mute is justly classed among the most 
deplorable calamities that can afflict a human being. 
The natural privations of such a person elicit in his 
favor the condoling sympathies of all considerate per- 
sons. Yet in order to accomplish secret purposes of 
ambition or cupidity, the dumb monks resigned the 
most important advantages with which Nature had en- 
riched them, and gratuitously assumed all the disad- 
vantages that the greatest calamity could have imposed. 
If there was nothing reprehensible in the taciturn fra- 
ternity but this curious departure from the natural use 
of the human faculties, it alone would be sufficient to 
subject them to the suspicion of the candid, and the 
aversion of the prudent. 

The tongue, it must be confessed, is sometimes an un- 
ruly member, but it is also the noblest blessing of the 
human organism. It is among the most prominent 
characteristics that distinguish the human from the 
brute creation. It is mostly by the means of the judi- 
cious employment of speech that the ignorant are in- 
structed, the afflicted consoled, and the cause of truth 
and freedom defended. It is by it that error is detected, 
vice intimidated, and superstition and despotism are 
exposed. The interchange of opinion, the animating 
power of debate, the searching inquisition of truth, the 
spontaneous sallies of wit, the exhilarating efFusions of 
humor, the burst of eloquence, the lore of philosophy, 
art, science, all the natural overflowing of the soul, find 



PERPETUAL SILENCE. 37 

in the varied and expressive functions of speech their 
most available avenues for the outlet of their respective 
treasures. Speech is a reflective blessing ; it blesses 
him who exercises it, and him upon whom it is ex- 
ercised. None can use with propriety their vocal 
powers without improving them; none can instruct 
without being instructed; none can advocate truth 
without being enlightened by its beams. It is a means 
which all possess of imparting consolation ; which en- 
riches the more prodigally it is dispensed ; which the 
poorest may bestow on the richest ; which is always the 
cheapest, often the most valuable, and sometimes the 
only one that can avail. When speech is free and un- 
trammeled by the fetters of intolerance, it is the most 
efficacious mode of improving the moral and intellectual 
tone of society. It is more powerful than legal enact- 
ments, and has been more successful than dungeons, 
racks, and all the prescriptions- of tyranny combined. 
Laws may interdict and gibbets terrify, but neither can 
convince the understanding, nor purify the sources of 
action. But freedom of speech enters the soul, con- 
verses with the intellect, sifts opinions, and moulds the 
nature of man into order and justice. She enters the 
halls of legislation and erects right into law. She 
enters the court and gives equity to judicial proceed- 
ings. She enters a community and breaks the irons of 
slavery, bestows equality on all, and enthrones in power 
public opinion. She enters a nation of slaves and 
makes them a nation of sovereigns. She is the great 
redeemer of the moral world. Her touch has healed 
its disorders ; her voice has calmed its storms ; her 
spirit has reanimated its dead. Such being her mission, 
4 



38 MONASTIC VOW OF 

none but impostors need fear her scrutiny ; none but 
bigots need dread her vengeance ; none but tyrants 
need tremble at her approach. 

Yet, notwithstanding the immense advantages the 
power of speech confers on its possessors, the silent 
monks have resigned all right to its use and sought 
an equality with dumb brutes. Whatever motives 
of religion may have mingled with the consumma- 
tion of this atrocious folly, it atones not for the good it 
has prohibited the monks from doing, nor the luxurious 
pleasure it has obliged them to forego. If it is consist- 
ent with the secret designs of any religious order to 
iron the faculties of speech in eternal silence, it is not 
consistent with the designs of Nature, the dictate of 
reason, nor the progress of man. If it is consistent with 
the obligations of any religious organization to prohibit 
the exercise of those powers by which error is checked, 
truth promoted, virtue fortified, and the world en- 
lightened, it is not consistent with the obligations of 
man, the purest instincts of his being, and the noblest 
virtues of his nature. If it is consistent with the prin- 
ciples of any version of religion to view with dumb in- 
difference the errors it might correct, or the sorrows it 
might heal, it is not consistent with the instinctive 
prompting of knowledge or of natural sympathy. And 
if such designs, obligations and principles are consistent 
with the faith and practice of the Catholic Church, she 
is a curse to the world, at variance with the general 
interests of society, opposed to the most sacred rights of 
man, an enemy to human knowledge, to human pro- 
gress, and to human sympathy. A slavery so abject, 
an absurdity so gross, and a despotism so monstrous, 



PERPETUAL SILENCE. 39 

as that which she sanctions, should consign her rev- 
erence to contempt, and her holiness to the scorn and 
ridicule of all enlightened nations and ages. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Monastic Vow of Silent Contemplation. 



PART FIRST 



Meditation not the Source of Knowledge. 

Similar in nature to the vow of seclusion and silence, 
and equally incompatible with a fulfilment of the obli- 
gations of reason and humanity, was the vow of silent 
contemplation assumed by many of the religious orders. 
Meditation, abstractly considered, is neither a virtue 
nor a vice. It derives its merit or demerit from the 
objects on which it dwells, and the manner in which it 
employs its faculties. The mind receiving its impres- 
sion from external objects, and their vividness and 
profundity being in proportion to the constancy with 
which they are contemplated, we as naturally become 
enlightened by what is true, expanded by what is lib- 
eral, and animated by what is pleasing, as we are 
misguided by what is erroneous, contracted by what is 
illiberal, and depressed by what is gloomy. Amid 
objects of reality, amid scenes of grandeur, where the 
subjects are the most numerous and varied, and where 
the faculties are awakened to their severest and most 
rigid scrutiny, is the great college in which the under- 
standing is "invigorated and improved ; in which the 
fancy is ennobled and chastened ; in which the mind 
acquires those maxims of wisdom, and that ascend- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 41 

ency over impulse and illusion which enable it to act 
in conformity with the principles of happiness and of 
the human organism. 

The process of meditation is the act of comparing 
facts, deducing conclusions, analyzing compounds, and 
tracing the chain of cause and effect. Knowledge is the 
material with which it works ; and, in proportion to its 
accuracy and extent, will be the value and greatness of 
our elaborations. 

But the processes of meditation are not adapted to 
the acquisition of knowledge. None are so absurd as 
to expect to obtain a knowledge of grammar, arithmetic, 
history, astronomy, or of the laws and properties of 
matter, by the mere exercise of the contemplative 
powers. To retire into solitude, and endeavor by the 
guess-work of meditation to acquire even a knowl- 
edge of the alphabet, would be as ridiculous as to 
attempt to make our feet perform the office of our 
hands.- Not less absurd would it be, were we to im- 
mure ourselves in the gloom and silence of perpetual 
confinement, avoiding the objects of Nature and an in- 
tercourse with society, with the expectation that by 
such means, though we possessed the penetration of a 
Locke, the intellect of a Gibbon, or the versatility of 
a Voltaire, to acquire, anything but profound ignorance ; 
or any ideas but what were unnatural, distorted and 
misshapen. 

To obtain knowledge we must exercise the perceptive 

faculties. The senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, 

tasting and touching are the only avenues by which 

knowledge can reach the mind. He whose observation 

has been the most comprehensive, and whose investiga- 
4* 



42 MONASTIC VOW OF 

tiong have been the most thorough and accurate, is 
enabled to exercise the contemplative powers with the 
greatest pleasure and advantage. The distinct and 
graphic imagery of men, scenes, events, objects and their 
properties, with which he has stored his mind, will give 
correctness to his ideas, variety to his mental opera- 
tions, comprehensiveness to his intellectual view, clear- 
ness to his judgment, and truth to his conclusions. 
Possessing the elements of correctness, he will also 
possess the elements of happiness and success. He is 
enabled to open the volume of Nature, and read, in her 
pages of rocks and stars, sublimer periods than the pen 
of superstition ever recorded. He stands perpetually 
in the vestibule of truth, opening on the fields of im- 
mensity, strewed with objects of reality, before the 
blaze of whose overpowering grandeur the throne and 
empire of fancy dwindle into insignificance. He is 
enabled to imbibe the fervor, inhale the inspiration, 
and enjoy the ecstatic delights which scientific truth 
alone can confer, and which in intensity and purity so 
far transcend the fanatic's wildest excitement. He is 
inducted into the secret by which science has achieved 
all her victories, and by which she has erected in such 
solid grace and grandeur those literary and philosoph- 
ical structures which stand like imperishable columns 
amid the ruin of temples and kingdoms. 

But the acquisition of these exalted attainments em- 
braces the exercise of all the intellectual power on ap- 
propriate objects. The mental, like the corporeal pow- 
ers, are various ; they are differently organized and 
adapted to deal with objects of different natures; and, 
all require to be exercised judiciously, in order to be 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 43 

kept in a healthy tone. If any member of the body 
is disused, it will be deprived of its natural energy ; 
if any faculty of the mind is disused, it will lose its 
natural strength. It is only when each faculty of mind 
and body is properly exercised that the health and 
vigor of the whole organism can be maintained. The 
physiological cause of the enervating effects of indo- 
lence, and the invigorating consequences of exercise, are 
found in those laws of the human organism, whereby 
the blood is increased in a member by exercise, and de- 
creased by inertia, and a proportionable degree of 
strength imparted by one and, subtracted by the other. 
Now, the faculties employed in the process of medita- 
tion, comprehend but a small number of the mental 
powers ; and if they are exclusively exercised, a super- 
abundant volume of blood will be distributed to them, 
and they will absorb the aliment necessary for the sub- 
sistence of the others. The establishment of this in- 
equality in the distribution of the blood will derange 
the harmonious condition of the cerebral organs ; some 
will be overcharged, and either inflamed or constipated, 
and others impoverished or enervated. One class of 
the mental powers thus becoming over-excited, another 
class enfeebled, and a third paralyzed, the ideas which 
the mind, in this condition, is capable of elaborating, 
must necessarily be partial, defective, disjointed and 
grotesque ; resembling those nightmares that flit in our 
sleep," or those monsters which are born without limbs, 
and marked with deformity and distortion. But when 
all the moral faculties are properly employed, they will 
all receive their appropriate nourishment and maintain 
their natural vigor. In consequence of a harmony; 



44 MONASTIC VOW OF 

equality, unity and reciprocity of mental action, thus 
induced, all the powers will be preserved in healthy 
action — the perceptives in furnishing the mind with 
knowledge, memory in storing it up, order in classify- 
ing it, analogy in comparing it, judgment in deducing 
conclusions from it, taste iu selecting what is most 
appropriate, fancy in adorning it ; and all proceeding 
as naturally as the vital organ elaborates and vitalizes 
the blood, and the reproductive system transforms it 
into animal fluids and solids. 

But the partial exercise of the mental faculties, em- 
braced in the act of meditation, not only disproportion- 
ately develops the cerebral organs ; but deranges those 
which it labors to keep in incessant activity. A period 
of rest after labor is indispensable to the maintenance 
of the health and vigor of the cerebral organs. Exer- 
cise increases the now of blood to their parts ; repose, 
by inducing the process of recuperation, not only re- 
stores their vigor but increases their healthy volume. 
The invigorating effect of sleep is derived from the 
profound slumber into which all the faculties are 
calmed, except those whose functions are destined to 
recuperate and vitalize the entire system. To labor 
to keep the meditative facilities in constant action is to 
interrupt the process of recuperation ; and, consequent- 
ly, to prevent them from becoming vitalized. The man 
who attempts to lift a weight beyond the capacity of his 
muscular vigor, may never afterward be enabled to 
raise the tenth part of what was within his former 
ability ; and Sir Isaac Newton, whose powers of con- 
templation seemed almost superhuman, after he had 
enervated his faculties by impelling them to constant 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 45 

and excessive exercise, lias furnished the world with an 
illustration of the imbecility it engendered, by his 
works on the prophecies. 

But the principle of self-preservation inherent in the 
human mind, rebels against the destruction of its facul- 
ties. Habitually to exercise the contemplative faculties 
on one class of objects is a superhuman task. In spite 
of resistance the blood will pursue its natural course to 
the different organs of the brain, and by virtue of this 
fact, in conjunction with the natural condition of the 
system, instinct will prompt, thought intrude, emotion 
arise, appetite crave, passion yearn, distraction ensue ; 
and under the external semblance of sanctity, a moral 
volcano will burn and heave. "We may, by means of 
the theological subterfuge that the involuntary actions 
of the cerebral functions are the suggestion of impure 
and malignant fiends, apologize to our conscience for 
the intrusion of profane and worldly thoughts, but this 
device will not exorcise them. We shall find that in 
the effort to become automata, we are men ; and that in 
the attempt to exercise one class of faculties and to con- 
centrate :them' perpetually on one class of objects, we 
have grappled with a giant, over whom, if we triumph 
it will be in our death-struggle. 

It' is impossible to think and feel by rule. Neither 
particular trains of thought, nor particular kinds of 
emotion are at the command of the will. Belief or 
unbelief, the sensations of contrition, of devotion, of 
hope, or any other sentiment or feeling can no more 
be created by an act of volition, than can storms and 
earthquakes.. There is a secret power acting on the 
nervous system, over which the will has no control. 



46 MONASTIC VOW OF 

The state of the atmosphere, the sanity of the system, 
the unconscious power of imbibed principles, the recol- 
lections of the past, the circumstances of the present, 
and the prospects of the future, all like unseen spirits 
stir the soul's depths with ideas and passions, always 
involuntary, and sometimes as abruptly as an electri- 
cal flash. To attempt to subject the laws by which 
ideas and emotions are created to the power of the will, 
so that they may be conjured and shaped by its mand- 
ates, is to war, not only against the constitution of the 
human mind, but against the powers and elements of 
Nature. 



PART SECOND. 

The Natural Effects of the Monastic Vow of Silent Con- 
templation. 

Let us consider the character and products of the mind 
which the monastic vow of silent contemplation is cal- 
culated to create. " 

"When liberal education has disciplined the intellectual 
powers, and study has enriched the mind with the facts 
and principles of science and literature, a philosopher 
may find in solitude an influence congenial to his high 
pursuits ; and with his scientific instruments enlarging 
his field of vision, he may discover new secrets in the 
realms of Nature, and come forth from retirement a 
more useful member and a brighter ornament of society. 
But if with distinguished abilities, and the valuable 
results of an erudite industry, he should maintain per- 
petual silence, and continue for life in a secluded abode, 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 47 

he would be of no benefit to mankind, and neither win 
nor deserve the homage which they accord to scientific 
benefactors. 

But the monks were very far from being philoso- 
phers. They were in general exceedingly illiterate. 
Some of their orders actually interdicted as profane any 
attempt to cultivate the intellectual powers, or to ac- 
quire either scientific or literary information. Filled 
with abject and obscene pilgrims, with slaves who knew 
of nothing but manual labor, with mechanics whose 
scanty wages had precluded the possibility of a rudi- 
mental education, with soldiers who had no knowledge 
but that of war, and who had fled before the victorious 
barbarian into obscurity for safety, it could not be ex- 
pected that the monasteries with such material, im- 
prisoned in solitude, deprived of social communion, 
enervated in mental capacity, and restricted in the 
exercise of their intellectual powers, could ever give 
birth to philosophers, or to anything but mental imbe- 
cility and moral monstrosities. 

It has been alleged in favor of monastic institutions 
that they have originated and were sustained from a 
pious intention of affording the devout an asylum, 
where, secluded from the distractions of life, and oc- 
cupied in silent contemplation on death and judgment, 
they might fit themselves for the society of God and an- 
gels. That such a motive has at times mingled with the 
causes which have induced individuals to assume the mo- 
nastic vow, is undoubtedly true ; but had it been in 
every instance the only incentive it would not have 
made the act less irrational, unnatural and pernicious. 
Such a plea, in fact, would only prove that monastic 



48 MONASTIC VOW OF 

piety was identical with. Pagan piety. Long before the 
origin of Christianity, religious orders existed in India, 
which sought by means of the destruction of all corpore- 
ality and intellectual activity, an incorporation with the 
nature of God, and the realization of a state of perfect 
happiness. 

But an act may be absurd and pernicious, while its 
motive is pure ; and it is always absurd when its objects 
are imaginary, and pernicious when they are in viola- 
tion of the dictate of reason. The monastic vows and 
regulations were ill calculated to make men either 
happy, enlightened, or useful. Encaverned in solitude, 
the monks could not become extensively acquainted 
with the objects of Nature ; preserving perpetual silence, 
they could not materially enlarge each others' informa- 
tion ; exercising but one class of the mental organs, 
they could not form the numerous order of conceptions 
perfected only by the review of all the faculties. Iso- 
lated from human contiguity, walled up in a dungeon, 
or incarcerated in a monastic cell, the mind overtasked 
with labor, broken down by fatigue, prostrated yet 
urged to action, one class of the faculties paralyzed, 
another inflamed to frenzy, and all concentrated in 
silent contemplation on terrible and incomprehensible 
subjects, partial or complete insanity would ensue ; in- 
congruity would become tasteful, exaggerations natu- 
ral, impossibilities credible, shadows realities, and 
visions, fiends, and angels take possession of the mind. 
The productions of such a mind, being a transcript of its 
impressions, would present nothing as real or symmet- 
rical ; but everything as disfigured, indistinct, shadowy, 
inharmoniously blended, or superlatively gigantic. Mis- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 49 

shapen dwarfs, huge giants, beings that were neither 
men, nor beasts, nor birds, nor fishes, nor angels, nor 
demons, but an incongruous mixture of them all, 
would be its natural offspring. Men with birds' wings, 
beasts with human heads, women with fishes' scales, and 
animals variously compounded of the limbs, claws, and 
beaks, all in violation of the natural order of Nature, 
and incompatible with the laws of life, would spring 
in horrible profusion from the distorted imagination of 
the monks. 

All ideas of proportion, adaptation and utility would 
be transgressed in their creations. They might regale 
credulity with an account of cities fifteen hundred miles 
high, with asses reproving prophets, with snakes con- 
versing with women, with immaterial beings fluttering 
on ponderable pinions, and with angels whose heads 
reached the stars, but whose forms were so hugely dispro- 
portioned, that while one foot rested on an insignificant 
portion of the isle of Patmos, the other would rest on a 
like portion of the Mediterranean sea. The scenery, 
caught from the gloom of forests, caves or cloisters, 
would naturally wear an infernal aspect, where 
there would be shape, but no symmetry; color but 
no contrast nor harmony; where immaterial beings 
would be represented as tormented with the flames and 
suffocating effects of liquid brimstone ; where they 
would shriek and groan without vocal organs, war and 
wound with material swords, and where corporeality and 
incorporeality would be compounded in every variety 
and degree of inconsistency. If in the intervals of the 
monk's gloomy ravings he should attempt a more 
cheerful picture, the scene which he would probably 



50 • MONASTIC VOW OF 

portray might glitter with gold and gems where they 
would be of no service ; but it would be pervaded by 
an awfulness which would be depressing, and by a 
splendor which would be terrifying. The music might 
be loud enough to shake Nature to its foundation, but 
it would naturally be monotonous, perhaps consisting of 
one tone and one song, eternally sung by beings without 
throats, assisted by the trumpets and harps invented 
by mortals ; and had pianos, fiddles and accordians 
been early enough invented, they too, would probably 
have chimed in the grand chorus. Beside the music of 
the operatic troupe, the other recreations would prob- 
ably be so incompatible with the principles of human 
enjoyment, and make the monk's very heaven so awfully 
repulsive, that common sense would prudently shrink 
from partaking of its glory. Thus the conceptions of 
virtue and of vice, of perfect happiness and of perfect 
misery, of metaphysical and of theological dogmas, 
formed by the distempered brains of hermits and 
monks, while they might be awfully effulgent or in- 
supportably horrible, would be conflicting in their parts, 
inconsistent with pure ideas of men, of phantoms, or 
of things ; and such a strange commingling of incon- 
gruities as might remind reflections of the huts and 
palaces of Christian Rome, which are constructed of ihe 
tombs, altors, temples and palaces of Pagan Rome. 

What reason would naturally deduce from the char- 
acter of the monastic vows, and rules, is amply con- 
firmed by the facts of history. Housed with silent, 
ignorant and gloomy companions, the monks con- 
templated not the realities of truth, but the fictions of a 
distempered fancy ; and while they scorned the first as 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION-. 51 

profane, they trembled before the second as a dread 
reality. Conceiving the deity as a monarch, they 
thought of him as a tyrant ; and believing their nature 
depraved, they punished themselves as criminals. As 
they imagined freedom of thought sinful, they acquired 
the temper of a slave ; and as they were incapable of 
reasoning themselves, they accepted as truth whatever 
their ecclesiastical tyrants dictated. Impressed with the 
fancy that demons had taken possession of their bodies, 
they attempted to dislodge them by making their 
abode as uncomfortable as possible. 

After having manacled their limbs with the heaviest 
chains, and lacerated their bodies in the most horrible 
manner, they were surprised at finding that they had 
not yet destroyed their constitutional jDrinciples and 
appetites ; and regarding themselves still as objects of 
divine wrath, they trembled as if a fiery and bottom- 
less pit yawned at their feet. While they labored by 
monastic rules and exercises to fit themselves for the 
society of God and angels, they rendered themselves 
unfit for the society of human beings. The percep- 
tive powers uninformed, and inflamed by disease, 
furnishing nothing but extravagant and perverted 
ideas, and the fancy combining them only into mon- 
strous and hideous shapes, the mind became perpetually 
filled with the most horrible images. The superabund- 
ant volume of blood consequent on overwrought excite- 
ment, distending the blood vessels of the visual and 
auditory organs, and causing them unnaturally to 
press against these organs, gave a vivid distinctness 
to the impressions, and so brought out the mental 
perspective as to give the complexion and dis- 



52 MONASTIC VOW OP 

tinctness of reality. In consequence of the condi- 
tion of mind thus induced, the sights and sounds con- 
ceived by fancy were recognized as real by the per- 
ceptive organs. The senses thus recognizing visions as 
realities, the life of the recluse was doomed to become 
an incessant struggle, not only with real disease, but 
with imaginary demons. Less refined in their myth- 
ology than the Pagans, who regarded the earth, air and 
water as peopled with genii, naiads and fairies, they 
conceived them inhabited by malignant fiends. 

The monks often fancied that they saw the misshapen 
forms of demons, and heard their diabolical whispers. 
Too illiterate or obtuse to account for natural phenomena, 
they supposed that they had a hand in regulating the 
operations of Nature ; and, too unacquainted with the 
habits of the brute creation to understand their me- 
chanical capacity, they regarded the contrivances of 
animals as the undoubted fruit of a nocturnal adven- 
ture of the infernal inhabitants. They often conceived 
that they saw His Satanic Majesty, with all his distin- 
guishing appendages, such as his cloven foot, his sooty 
aspect, his peculiar horns, and sulphurous odor. Al- 
though his visitations were most formidable in the shape 
of a woman, yet they frequently had the uncommon 
fortitude of sustaining long conversations with him. 

The more pious a monk was, the more frequently he 
was honored with the company of demons. This fact 
is not surprising, for it is certain that the more success- 
fully he warred against nature and himself, the more 
diseased would become his brain, the more extrava- 
gant his conceptions, the more discordant his imagina- 
tion, the more susceptible his senses to false impresions, 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 53 

the more frequent and terrible would apparitions ap- 
pear, and the better he would be suited for the com- 
pany of fiends and spirits. If in the vigorous and 
wholesome bustle of life, the visual organs may recog- 
nize images which have no real existence, the auditory, 
sounds which are imaginary, and the olfactory, odors 
which are the mere products of fancy, how much more 
vividly would analogous deceptions be likely to occur 
in the minds of monks and anchorites, whose condi- 
tion was replete with causes calculated to create them. 
Such was the melancholy condition of those monks who, 
aspiring after superhuman sanctification, had with sin- 
cerity of purpose assumed the monastic obligation. 
But there were others who, more ambitious of fame 
than of internal purity, had assumed the same obliga- 
tions. Professedly despising pleasure and fortune, but 
secretly laboring to acquire their possession, they 
manufactured with more facility diabolical apparitions, 
than those whichs pontaneously psrang from the over- 
wrought brain of the sincere. 

Sanctification having become the passport to 
worldly honors, and its degree orthodoxly estimated 
by the degrees of personal familiarity with the Devil, 
the aspiring were too frail to resist the temptation of 
increasing their celebrity by multiplying the number of 
satanic visits ; and as they could draw on an inexhaust- 
ible mine of conscienceless inventions, and deliberately 
adorn them with the terrific and interesting incidents of 
romance, they far outstripped the reputation of the 
sincere, and with greater facility obtained the emolur 
ments of ecclesiastical sinecures. The sense of touch not 
being equally susceptible of false impressions with the 



54 MONASTIC VOW OF 

other senses, while the sincere might see demons and 
hear their voices, they could not so well recognize them 
by means of contact. But the hypocritical, untram- 
meled by this limitation, would create by their invent- 
ive faculties any number of personal encounters and 
terrific battles with the armies of the infernal regions. 

Although the monks sometimes relate how com- 
pletely they, vanquished the Devil by their elo- 
quence and the ingenuity of their arguments, yet they 
oftener tell how valorously they triumphed over him 
after a desperate struggle with his superhuman strength; 
and not seldom, how alone and single-handed they en- 
countered him in command of a battalion of fiends, in- 
flicting on the spiritual bodies of the demons such deep 
gashes, and cutting up their impalpable substances in 
such a horrible manner that, wounded, bleeding and de- 
moralized, they retreated in wild disorder. As the 
monkish cell, like the human brain, could accomodate 
any number of devils, it was as convenient a hall of 
audience in which to receive His Satanic Majesty, as it 
was an area for the scientific manceuvering of his le- 
gions. The crown of sanctification being awarded to 
the most unscrupulous inventor of pious ficitons, a hy- 
pocrite was encouraged to labor to outrival the fame of 
an antagonist by the boldness of his assertions, the ex- 
travagance of his fables, and the incredibleness of his 
fabrications. Under such circumstances we are not 
astonished to find that some claimed to have obtained a 
perfection in holiness that enabled them to see the 
Devil anywhere, and to look upon hell at any time. 

Even at the period of the Reformation, the popular 
belief recognized the Devil and his imps as often vis- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 55 

ible. Martin Luther, while engaged in translating the 
Bible, conceived that he saw the Devil enter his study, 
for the purpose of embarrassing him in the execution of 
his useful design. Annoyed at this unceremonious and 
impertinent intrusion, he threw at His Satanic Majesty 
an inkstand, which, passing through the dusky form 
and striking the wall beyond, left a stain which is vis- 
ible to this day. 



PAR T THIRD . 

The Ignorance and Corruption induced by the Monastic 
Vow of Silent Contemplation. 

The profound homage won by the monks from igno- 
rance and superstition, gave such credit to their extrav- 
agant productions, that history has sometimes been led 
into the error of recording them as real events ; and 
the craft or credulity of the church in incorporating 
them in her devotional books has so deepened and per- 
petuated reverence for them, that, even at the present 
day, they continue still to govern in a measure the 
superstition, and to contaminate the creed and ritual of 
reformed churches. 

It has been alleged, with apparent plausibility, in 
favor of monastic institutions, that they were during 
the middle ages the protectors of learning. But, un- 
fortunately, this noble virtue can be justly claimed for 
only a few of them ; and for that few in but a limited 
sense. Some of the inmates being unfit for more remu- 



56 MONASTIC VOW OP 

nerative employment were subjected to the drudgery of 
copying manuscript ; sometimes the task was imposed 
on others as a penance. The aged and infirm of the 
Benedictine monks were thus employed ; and, as the 
multiplication of manuscripts is the most efficient mode 
of preserving what is written on the perishable mate- 
rial of paper and parchment, these monks have con- 
tributed to the preservation of learning. But invet- 
erate prejudice, obstinate bigotry, gross ignorance, and 
abject servitude were ill qualified to render correct 
versions, while they were well adapted to the perpetra- 
tion of fraud and corruption. Transcribing manu- 
scripts, not to produce accurate copies, but to consume 
time or do penance, and governed by the misleading 
principles of their order, it is not as likely that the 
monks would furnish authentic and reliable transcripts, 
as that they would mar them with errors, embellish 
them with fancies, and interpolate them with forgeries 
and wilful corruptions. 

"While such was the literary honesty of the religious 
orders, and such likely to be the character of their 
manuscripts, the ignorance and superstition of the age 
favored rather than obstructed the perpetration of any 
pious fraud they might contemplate. A few facts will 
illustrate the incredible ignorance of the Catholic 
clergy during the dark ages. A Jew, converted to 
Christianity but not to truth, having persuaded the 
Emperor Maximilian that the Hebrew works, the Old 
Testament excepted, were all of pernicious tendency, 
the latter, at the horrible revelatation, ordered them to 
to be burnt. The learned Reuchlen earnestly remon- 
strated against the imperial decree, and succeeded in 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 57 

having its execution postponed until the matter of the 
allegation could be critically examined. A controversy 
of ten years ensued. So grossly ignorant were the 
clergy that not one of them with whom Eeuchlen de- 
bated had ever seen a Greek Testament, and as for the 
Hebrew Bible, they denounced its alphabetical char- 
acters as the diabolical invention of some profane 
sorcerer. So obstinate was their opposition to Hebrew 
literature that they declared their readiness to support 
their cause at the point of the sword. Neither the Pope 
nor the cardinals having sufficient learning to decide on 
the merits of the question, the former was induced to 
appoint as umpire the archbishop of Spires, whose de- 
cision happily rescued oriental literature from the 
flames of the stake. Pope Sylvester II., whose literary 
attainments were superior to those of the clergy of his 
age, was regarded as a magician who held unhallowed 
converse with infernal demons. St. Augustin, who was 
ignorant of the Greek tongue, and whose learning was 
sufficiently superficial to prepare him for canonization, 
pronounced the doctrine of the antipodes a blasphemous 
heresy ; and Pope Zachariah degraded a friar for in- 
dorsing it, and excommunicated all Catholics who should 
believe it. The patriarch Cyrille declared that neither 
he, nor the Vandal clergy, nor the African clergy un- 
derstood the Latin language. St. Hilary asserts from 
his personal knowledge that but few of the prelates in 
the ten provinces of Asia preserved the knowledge of 
the true god. (Hilar, de Synodis. c. 63, p. 1186). 
It might reasonably be supposed that the ecclesiastical 
councils, composed of the most influential bishops, 
priests and abbots, would comprehend among their 



58 MONASTIC VOW OF 

members many distinguished scholars, yet according to 
the authority of Pope Gregory II., the councils at his 
time were composed of men, not only ignorant of letters, 
but of the scriptures. According to the testimony of 
Sabinus, bishop of Heraclea, the Nicene bishops were 
"a set of illiterate, simple creatures that understood 
nothing," and Cassian charges the Egyptian monks of 
having ignorantly preached Epicurean Paganism as the 
gospel of Christ. Among the crowd of slaves, soldiers, 
lords and priests that thronged the convents, the sign of 
the cross, the sign of ignorance, was a general mode 
of executing contracts, as all could make it, though few 
could write their names. 

That the literary progress of the church has not kept 
pace with the progress of the world, will be attested by 
a few extracts from a work written by William Hogan, 
formerly a Catholic priest of Philadelphia, comprising 
an essay entitled, " A Synopsis of Popery, as it was and 
as it is," and another entitled, "Auricular Confession 
and Popish Nunneries," published at Hartford, by Silas 
Andrew and Son, in 1850 — a work that may be profit- 
ably consulted by parents who educate their daughters 
at nunnery schools, and by gentlemen who contemplate 
forming matrimonial alliances with ladies who have 
been accomplished at such institutions. Speaking of 
the ecclesiastical canons the author says : " These 
canons are inaccessible to the majority of the American 
people, even of theologians, and with the purport or 
meaning of them none but those who have been edu- 
cated Catholic priests have much or any acquaintance. 
He who argues with Catholic priests must have had his 
education with them, he must be of them and from 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 59 

among them. He must know from experience that 
they will stop at no falsehood where the good of the 
church is concerned ; he must know that they will 
scruple at no forgery when they desire to establish any 
point of doctrine, fundamentally or not fundamentally, 
which is not taught by the church ; he must be aware 
that it is a standing rule with the Popish priests, in all 
their controversies with Protestants, to admit nothing 
and deny everything, and that if still driven into diffi- 
culty they will have recourse to the archives of the 
church, where they keep piles of decretals, canons,, re- 
ceipts, bulls, excommunications and interdicts, ready 
for all such emergencies, some of them dated from 300 
to 1000 years before they were written or thought of, 
showing more clearly than perhaps anything else the 
extreme ignorance of mankind between the third and 
ninth century, when these forgeries were palmed on the 
world." (Synopsis, p. 9, 10). Again, he observes: 
" The majority of Catholics in this country know no- 
thing of the religion which they profess, and for which 
they are willing to fight, contend, and shed the blood of 
their fellow beings. I am not even hazarding an asser- 
tion when I say there is not one of them that has read 
the gospel through, or that knows any more about the 
religion he professes than he does about the Koran of 
Mohammed. He Is told by the priest that Christ estab- 
lished a church on earth ; that it is infallible, and that 
he must submit implicitly to what its popes, priests and 
bishops teach, under pain of ' damnation.' This is all 
the great mass of Catholics know of religion ; this is all 
they are required to learn ; and hence it is that these 
people are unacquainted with the pretensions of the 



60 MONASTIC VOW OF 

Pope, the intrigues of the Jesuits,, and the imposition 
practised on them by their bishops and priests." (Sy- 
nopsis, p. 29). Speaking of the theological education 
of the priests, he says : " During the four years I spent 
in the college of Maynooth, they (the scriptures) 
formed no portion of the education of the students. It 
is my firm conviction, that out of the large number of 
students there for the ministry, there was not one who 
read the gospels through, nor even portions of them, 
except such as are found in detached passages, in works 
of controversy between Catholics and Protestants. Un- 
til I went to college I scarcely ever heard of a Bible. 
I know not of one in any parish of Munster, except it 
may be a Latin one, which each priest may or may not 
have, as he pleases. But I studied closely the holy 
fathers of the church ; so did most of the students. 
Wc were taught to rely upon them as our sole guide in 
morals, and the only correct interpreters of the Bible. 
A right of private judgment was entirely denied us, 
and represented as the source of multifarious errors. 
The Bible, in fact, we had no veneration for. It was, 
in truth, but a dead letter in the college ; it was a 
sealed book to us, though there were not an equal num- 
ber of students who were obliged to study more closely 
the sayings, the sophistry, the metaphysics and mystic 
doctrines of those raving dreamers called holy fathers ; 
many of whom, if now living would be deemed mad, 
and dealt with accordingly." (Auric. Confess., vol. 1, 
p. 79, 80). 

But to return to the consideration of the monks. 
The pen of transcribers, so generally ignorant, and so 
grossly superstitious, could not render authentic manu- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 61 

scripts even when actuated by the best intention ; and 
when we recollect that the task which required the 
exercise of an enlightened and vigorous intellect was 
devolved on the most diseased and infirm of the re- 
ligious orders, the impossibility of its effectual perform- 
ance will appear without a doubt. As ignorance could 
not transcribe masterly, so superstition would pervert 
intentionally. Conscience paralyzed by bigotry, and 
the love of truth supplanted by a careful regard to the 
interests of the church, the copyists would esteem it a 
Christian duty to omit such parts of a manuscript as 
militated against the truth of their religion ; to corrupt 
such parts as might by perversion be made to adminis- 
ter to its support ; and to interpolate such parts 
with occurrences and apparent incidental allusions to 
events, the omission of which was fatal to its cred- 
ibility ; and thus by a system of typographical frauds, 
deliberate falsehoods and artful perversions, contrive to 
make it appear that all Jewish and Pagan literature 
concurred in establishing Catholicism. 

The classics, unlike the canonical scriptures, have 
been subjected to the purifying process of rigid criti- 
cism, and the monkish corruptions w T hich once perverted 
the meaning, are in a great measure eradicated from 
modern editions. Had the New Testament been sub- 
jected to a similar ordeal, such for instance as the 
learned Strauss, in his Life of Christ, instituted, In- 
fidels might have fewer objections to the gospels, and 
the credit of these sacred books be far better sustained 
than it has been by voluminous commentaries, declama- 
tory sermons and conflicting polemical works, defending 

the grossest frauds and the boldest interpolations. 
6 



62 . MONASTIC VOW OF 

The bigotry or fear of the church, which induced it 
to corrupt the works of ancient authors, led it also to 
wage an exterminating war against those profane 
productions which it could not satisfactorily answer. 
For this purpose the secular power was invoked, and 
laws were framed prescribing the severest penalty for 
those who should read or possess a Pagan production. 
The persecution against philosophers and their libraries 
was carried on with such pious insanity that besides its 
causing piles of manuscripts to be destroyed, men of 
letters burned their elegant libraries, lest some vol- 
ume contained in them should jeopardize their lives. 
Young Chrysostom, happening once to find a proscribed 
volume, gave himself up for lost. St'. Jerome, in order 
to deter his readers from perusing any of the heathen 
authors, declared he had been scourged by an angel for 
reading the productions of Virgil. The Orthodox Theo- 
dosius, in the destruction of the Alexandrian library, 
consigned to the flames the literary treasures of an- 
tiquity. The bare thought of the existence of works 
which baffled the talent and learning of the church to 
refute, irritated the sensitive piety of the monks beyond 
endurance. They pursued the masterly productions of 
Celsus and Porphery with an unscrupulousness which 
seemed to indicate that the annihilation of them was in- 
dispensable to the existence of Christianity. After 
malice had ferreted every crevice where a proscribed 
volume could be secreted, and vengence had not left a 
vestige of any of them remaining, except what was 
quoted or perverted in the works of Christian apolo- 
gists, the Church boasted that God had not left a work 
of hostile literature in existence. With not less bias- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 63 

phemy and "bigotry has the same absurdity been echoed 
by dishonest, ignorant theologians of all ages. So wide 
and unsparing was the monkish war against classic lit- 
erature, that it has left no work in existence belonging 
to the period of Christ ; and hence where knowledge is 
the most needed the historian finds the least ; and where 
the facts might be expected to be the most abundant 
and of the clearest description, the wildest and most 
ridiculous fancies are presented. The necessity for this 
destruction proves the power of the works destroyed, 
and the alarm and weakness of the faith that destroyed 
them. 

Beside the destructive hostility of the monks to the 
formidable literary obstacles which embarrassed the 
vindication of their theological subtleties, their zeal led 
them to perpetrate the grossest forgeries in order to 
manufacture historical data in their favor. Prominent 
among the numerous instances of this disregard to truth, 
are the following passages conceded by all scholars to 
be entire fabrications. The passage in the works of 
Phlegon, in which he is made to speak of a total eclipse 
of the sun and a simultaneous earthquake ; a passage in 
Macrobius, which represents the author as incidentally 
referring to the death of a son of his as having occurred 
in consequence of a jealous order issued by Herod for 
the massacre of all children under two years old ; the 
Epistle of Lentulus, prefect of Judsea at the time of 
Christ, who is represented as describing the person and 
character of Christ, in a governmental despatch, which 
according to prefectorial custom was encumbent on him, 
in transmitting to Rome a report of all important 
events occurring within the limits of his jurisdiction ; 



64 MONASTIC VOW OF 

the legend of the Veronica handkerchief in which it is 
related how Abgarus, king of Edessa, sent ambassadors 
to Christ to solicit the favor of his portrait, and how 
wiping his face with a handkerchief, and thereby im- 
pressing his features on it, politely accommodated the 
legation ; the Epistle of Pontius Pilate to the Emperor 
Tiberius, in which he is made to relate the alleged cir- 
cumstances of the death and resurrection of Christ ; the 
fabulous inscriptions on two fabulous columns, said to 
be situated near Tangiers, relating to a robber called 
Joshua, son of Nun ; and all the passages found in Jo- 
sephus in reference to Christ. 

Origen, who wrote in the second century, complains 
that his own works had been altered ; and the practice of 
this base species of dishonesty seems to have fearfully 
increased with the growth of the Church. The monk 
Jerome, in the fourth century, finding the versions of 
the scriptures which were received by the churches as 
authentic exceedingly conflicting, undertook to abate the 
scandal it caused, by compiling a Bible with genuine 
text. The product of this laborious exertion was, how- 
ever, so unsatisfactory to the theological tastes of the 
churches, or to the results of their critical examinations, 
that but few of them adopted it. Although Jerome's 
labors were but imperfectly appreciated during his life, 
yet, as he had materially approximated toward furnish- 
ing a catholic desideratum, the Vulgate, which is a 
modification of his Bible, was declared by the Council 
of Trent, in 1546, to be " authentic in all lectures, dis- 
putations, sermons and expositions, and no one shall 
presume to reject it under any pretence whatever." 
But in attempting to execute this decree, the startling 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 65 

fact became evident that the copies of the Vulgate, in 
consequence of the liberty which translators had taken 
with the text, essentially differed from one another ; 
that each church believed in a different Bible ; that it 
was impossible to determine which divine book was 
the least corrupted ; and that as the Council, inspired 
by the Holy Ghost, had forgotten to designate which 
copy of the Vulgate was the genuine one, it only in- 
creased the confusion it had attempted to remedy. If 
disbelief in the Bible is infidelity, the greater number 
of the churches were actually in a situation which made 
them unconscious infidel conclaves. To relieve them 
from this perilous predicament, the Pope appointed a 
learned committee to prepare a Bible which should have 
genuine text. But the Bible elaborated by this com- 
mittee, not according with the Pope's theological 
fancies or secret designs, was rejected. Pope Pius IV. 
next tried his hand at perfecting and correcting the 
scriptural text ; but the task exceeding his learning and 
ingenuity, his efforts were alike unproductive of satisfac- 
tory results. He was followed by Pope Pius V., who also 
labored in vain. In 1590 Pope Sixtus V. made a Bible 
which his judgment or prejudice pronounced to be au- 
thentic. Determined that Christendom should be re- 
duced to the alternative of accepting his version, or 
having none, he anathematized all who should alter its 
text or reject his authority. But Pope Clement VIIL, 
not having the fear of his infallible predecessor's anath- 
ema before his eyes, made another Bible, and promul- 
gated it from his throne as genuine and authoritative, 
amid a heavy storm of Vatican thunder, in which he 
consigned to the care of the "Devil and his angels all 
6* 



66 MONASTIC VOW OF 

who should presume to correct the work of his infallible 
hands. A year had, however, scarcely elapsed when he 
was obliged to correct its glaring inconsistencies him- 
self ; incurring the vengeance of his own anathemas. 
Notwithstanding an incessant tinkering for ages by the 
ablest theologians, to mend the numerous flaws in the 
Catholic word of God, every well-informed Komanist 
admits, that while all the previously received versions 
of the Vulgate are too grossly corrupted to be defended, 
the one in present use is far from being perfect. Cardi- 
nal Bellarmine, who was deeply versed in Biblical erudi- 
tion, and who in life had obtained such an eminent degree 
of popularity for sanctity, that when he died a guard had 
to be placed over his corpse, to prevent the devout from 
robbing it of its garments — who wished to preserve or 
vend them as relics — declares that the most that can be 
said in favor of the received version is, that it is the 
best that has been made. 

The authorized English version of the holy scrip- 
tures, known as James' Bible, is the product of forty- 
seven celebrated Biblical scholars, after three years' 
labor. The manuscripts from which they made their 
translations being exceedingly corrupted and discordant, 
the renderings consequently were so conflicting and 
irreconcilable on any principle of philological or exe- 
getical criticism, that in order to effect any agreement, 
and prevent the production of as many Bibles as there 
were translators, they put the question concerning a 
disagreement to vote, and decided which was the cor- 
rect rendering by the authority of a majority of suf- 
frages. But this logic was not appreciated by Dr. Smith 
and Bishop Belsori, to whose joint scrutiny the Bible 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 67 

thus manufactured was afterwards submitted, and they 
accordingly subjected it to a further process of purifica- 
tion. 

While philological criticism, and investigations con- 
cerning the genuineness of the sacred text, have wrung 
from Catholics the reluctant concession that the Vul- 
gate needs a revision, they have equally extorted from 
Protestants the unwilling admission that their version 
is corrupted with undoubted forgeries. The doxology 
at the conclusion of the Lord's prayer, the story cf the 
pool of Bethsaida, the story cf the rich man and Laz- 
arus, and the story of the adulteress, are universally 
conceded by scholars to bo wilful fabrications. The 
most distinguished among Biblical scholars go further. 
Bretschneider, the friend and confident of Joseph II. of 
Austria, rejects the Gospel of St. John. Dr. Lardner 
rejects the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. 
James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Second 
Epistle of St. John, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the 
book of Revelations. Dr. Evanson rejects the Gospel 
of St. Matthew, the Gospel of St. Mark, the Gospel of 
St. Luke, the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistle to 
the Colossians, the Epistle to the Romans, the Eirst 
Epistle of St. Peter and the First Epistle of St. John. 

The Greek Testament comprehends 181,253 words, 
yet such is the number of mistakes, perversions, for- 
geries and interpolations in the existing manuscripts, 
that in comparing the documents together 130,000 va- 
rious readings are detected ; showing that the manu- 
scripts from which the New Testament is translated, 
are not correct in one word out of six. These discrep- 
ancies, affecting the mere spelling of a word in some in- 



68 MONASTIC VOW OF 

stances, and, in others, the sense of a passage, are of all 
degrees of importance. 

In Teschendorf 's New Testament, published by Tauch- 
nitz, at Leipzig, in English, and for sale by the New 
York booksellers, we find the following: "But the 
Greek text of the apostolic writings, since its origin in 
the first century, has suffered many a mischance at the 
hands of those who have used and studied it. . . . The 
authorized version, like Luther's, was made from a 
Greek text which Erasmus in 1516, and Eobert Steph- 
ens in 1550, had formed from, manuscripts of later date 
than the tenth century. . . . Since the sixteenth centu- 
ry Greek manuscripts have been discovered, of far 
greater antiquity than those of Erasmus and Stephens ; 
as well as others in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and Gothic, 
into which languages the sacred text was translated, 
between the second and fourth centuries Schol- 
ars are much divided in opinion as to the readings 
which most exactly convey the word of God." {Intro- 
duction, p. 1, 2). 

When mistakes in a manuscript arise, from the ignor- 
ance or incompetency of the copyist, they invalidate its 
authority ; when they arise from his carelessness, they 
are proofs that he entertained no reverence for it ; and 
when they occur from a deliberate intention on his part 
to corrupt and to interpolate it, they are demonstrations 
that he did not believe in its divine inspiration. That 
the religious orders did not believe in the divine in- 
spiration of the holy scriptures, is as undeniable as 
it is that they deliberately and intentionally marred all 
the Biblical manuscripts that passed through their 
hands. The conviction is equally irresistible that those 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 69 

who sanction the corruptions of the sacred text by using 
them as authority, and those who defend them in defi- 
ance of the irrefragable proof of their spurious character, 
forfeit all claim to a reputation of common honesty. 

There is another class of forgeries perpetrated for the 
good of the Church, to which I will briefly advert. Of 
this description is the Decretal Epistle of Constantine 
the Elder, addressed to Pope Sylvester — the foundation 
of the Pope's claim to temporal sovereignty ; and also 
the Creed of Athanasius, forged two hundred years 
after his death, and which Gennadius, Patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, upon first reading, pronounced to be the 
work of a drunken man. All ranks of the Church 
seemed to have become infatuated with an ambition to 
be forgers. Pope Stephen II. forged a letter, and 
attributed its authorship to the spirit of St. Peter. In 
this document, according to Gibbon, " The apostle assures 
his adopted sons, the King, the clergy, and the nobles 
of France, that dead in the flesh, he is still active in the 
spirit ; that they now hear and must obey the voice of 
the founder and guardian of the Roman Church ; that 
the virgins, the saints, and all the host of heaven, unan- 
imously urge the request, and will confess the obliga- 
tion ; that riches, victory and paradise will crown their 
pious enterprise, and that eternal damnation will be the 
penalty if they suffer his tomb, his temple, and his 
people to fall into the hands of the perfidious Saracens. 
( Dec. vol. v., chap, xlix., p. 26. ) The evidences of 
similar frauds are numerous. All the letters and de- 
cretals of Clementine are spurious. But few of the nu- 
merous works ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great are 
genuine. The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinth- 



70 MONASTIC VOW OF 

ians is egregeously corrupted and interpolated ; his 
second Epistle to the Corinthians, is so much mutilated 
that but a fragment of it remains ; his autobiography, 
in which he is made to take a j ourney with St. Peter ; 
and all his apostolic canons, are entire fabrications. The 
Apocalypse was rejected as spurious at the Council of 
Laodicea, by the seven churches to which it was ad- 
dressed, and the sentence was almost universally con- 
firmed by the churches of Christendom. Sirmund shows 
that the Nicene canons have been corrupted, altered, 
abridged, and forged to accommodate them to the 
designs of the church. {Tom. iv., p. 1-234). To es- 
tablish a historical basis for some pious imposition, the 
the letters of bishops, decrees of councils, and bulls of 
Popes have been forged, distorted, marred, interpolated 
or destroyed. Volume after volume has been written 
aud falsely attributed to the pen of some distinguished 
author, in order to obtain respect and authority for an 
absurd ecclesiastical claim or arbitrary usurpation. 
Without moral principle, and intent only on supporting 
the ambitious pretentions of the Pope, the religious 
orders, at the suggestion of interest, scrupled not to 
destroy the finest models of literary taste, and to per- 
petrate the most audacious forgeries. "What could not 
militate against the credit of their dogmas, or obstruct 
the consummation of their designs, or what might, by 
an artful adulteration be made accessory to them, they 
might piously spare ; but whatever was in its nature 
too inflexibly inimical to the success of them, they la- 
bored to annihilate. The unavoidable deduction from 
the existence of the monkish forgeries is, that every 
doctrine for which they have been fabricated to prove, 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 71 

is false ; and that every doctrine and event for which 
they have been manufactured to disprove, is true. 
The mutilation and destruction of ancient authors by 
the religious orders is a positive admission that such 
works were fatal to their claims ; the attempt to manu- 
facture artificial proof by corrupting and interpolating 
them, is an acknowledgment that the successful 
vindication of their creed and pretensions required 
proof which did not exist ; and the cargoes of their 
forgeries, each instance of which being a demonstration 
of these assertions, and consequently an undeniable ob- 
jection to the validity of the authority upon which they 
rest their claims, show the vast amount of labor the 
monks have undergone to disprove their own doctrines, 
and destroy their own credibility. 

In the revival of learning, inaugurated. by profane 
genius, the monastic orders, which possessed the trea- 
sures of classic literature, took, in general, no active 
part. The literary fires which smouldered in their in- 
stitutions cast but a sickly glare upon the darkness 
within, and the feeble rays could not be expected to 
penetrate the massive walls of these huge castles of 
ignorance. Resembling more a taper placed uuder a 
bushel than a light set upon a hill, they left the sur- 
rounding region enveloped in midnight gloom. The 
manuscripts transcribed or perverted by the monks 
were stowed away as useless rubbish. At length the 
holy charm which, for ages, had bound the church in 
stupid ignorance, was happily dissolved. Pope Nicho- 
las V., catching a spark of the fire which burned in the 
breast of his lay associates, such as Cosmo Medici, his 
own, too, became ignited. Unconscious or regardless of 



72 MONASTIC VOW OF 

the liberalizing tendency of classical literature, he be- 
came enthusiastic in its cause, and inaugurated a pur- 
suit which has exposed the forgeries and legends of the 
Catholic Church to scorn and contempt. Whatever 
were his private views, his public example and asser- 
tions indicate that he had arrived at a firm conviction 
that the papal chair would not soon again be filled with 
another friend to the classics. Diligently improving the 
auspicious moment, he collected the dusky and moulder- 
ing manuscripts from the monasteries, while his coadju- 
tors sent vessels to gather them from abroad. By the 
united labors of the Pope and his opulent laymen, 
respectable libraries were formed, and the world was 
enlightened by recovered versions of Xenophon, Diodo- 
rus, Polybius, Thuycidides and other eminent authors. 

The apprehensions of Nicholas, suggested probably by 
his knowledge of the nature and past conduct of the 
church, were too well founded not to be confirmed by 
subsequent history. The Pagan authors of Greece and 
Eome, speaking in the clear tones of reason and philo- 
sophy, could not subserve the purposes of ecclesiastical 
fraud and intolerance. The dark conspiracy to deceive 
and enslave mankind, and the systematized measures 
to keep the world in ignorance, which constitutes a per- 
manent feature of Catholic polity, could derive no aid 
from a liberal diffusion of Pagan erudition. Hence 
Leo X., who is ranked among the most generous of the 
pontifical patrons of the classics, prohibited the transla- 
tion of them into the vernacular language. 

But it may be alleged as an exception to the usual 
hatred manifested by the church to the cause of educa- 
tion, that the Pope did, at times, establish colleges and 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 73 

universities. This fact is undeniably true. Pope Six- 
tus IV. established several universities ; but he required 
from each, for a charter, 10,000 ducats ; and for each 
collegiate title and office, from 10,000 to 20,000 ducats. 
Pope Innocent III. also founded a university ; but it 
was on condition that he received 50,000 scudi for its 
charter. He also very generously created twenty-six 
secretaryships, and a host of other offices, to assist the 
labors of education, but he sold appointments to them 
at very exorbitant prices. Pope Alexander VI. also 
founded a university, but it was in consideration of a 
magnificent bonus ; and he even further displayed his 
magnanimity by nominating eighty writers of popish 
briefs, and selling the appointments at 850 scudi each. 
But after all what was the object of these institutions? 
Was it to advance the capacities of individual man? 
"Was it to enlighten society at large ? Not at all. Gui- 
zot says : " For the development of the clergy, for the 
instruction of the priesthood, she [the church] was 
actively alive ; to promote these she had her schools, 
her colleges, and all other institutions which, the de- 
plorable state of society would permit. These schools 
and colleges, it is true, were all theological, and des- 
tined for the clergy; and, though from the intimacy 
between the civil and religious orders they could not 
but have some influence on the rest of the world, it 
was very slow and indirect." (Gen. Hist. Civ., Sect, vi., 
p. 132). Guizot might have added with truth, that 
even for her own clergy the churcb never tolerated an 
educational institution without receiving an exorbitant 
pecuniary consideration, nor appointed a professor, or 
any other officer, without receiving pay for it. 
7* 



74 MONASTIC VOW OF 

Dens, in his "Systematic Theology," reasons thus: 
" Because forgers of money, and other disturbers of the 
State, are justly punished with death, therefore also are 
heretics, who are forgers of the faith, and, as experience 
shows, greatly disturb the State." ( Dens, 2, 88, 89 ). 
If this logic is sound, it is difficult to perceive how 
Popes, cardinals, monks and priests can avoid conceding 
justice the right of putting them to death, as by the uni- 
versal testimony of history and the acknowledgment of 
the ablest Catholic authors, they have been forgers of 
the faith ; and, as they have been greater forgers than 
Protestants, they may, according to their own logic, be 
more justly put to death. But this we should be sorry 
to witness. 

The efforts of the church to manufacture evidence in 
support of gratuitous assumptions, which so clearly dis- 
proves what it asserts at every step ; sinks its character 
and authority into such utter insignificance ; and 
in proportion to the warmth of its zeal adds weight to 
the contempt it has earned, might be considered un- 
worthy the notice of sober reason, and left to the 
crushing jeer of its own ludicrousness. Yet when its 
polluting finger presumes to touch the sacred page of 
history ; when it would annihilate all historical author- 
ity by base interpolations, and load the shelves of libra- 
ries with its spurious trash, it has invaded a province 
sacred to the rights of the world ; a province in which 
truth, reason, and human progress have a deep inter- 
est, and which must be protected against the intrusion 
of malignant feet. 

From the monastic vows and regulations, we might be 
agreeably surprised if the literary productions of those 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 75 

who were governed by them were anything but models 
of absurdity and puerility. It would naturally be sus- 
pected that the ideas of the monks would be shaded by 
the gloom of their melancholy abode, contracted by the 
influence of their solitary confinement, and rendered 
misshapen by the habit of conversing exclusively with 
their own meditations ; and that their literary produc- 
tions would be rife with all the inventions to which 
bigotry and superstition could prompt, and with all the 
craft and unscrupulousness that could serve the pur- 
poses of unpolished and unnatural fraternities, isolated 
from society, absolved from the ties and obligations of 
humanity, and exclusively devoted to the defense and 
aggrandizement of an organization which aimed at mo- 
nopolizing all secular rights, immunities and privileges, 
in order to command the dominion and luxuries of the 
world. This reasonable presumption we shall find too 
well confirmed for the credit of human nature, in those 
legends and theological disquisitions which have often 
puzzled the credulous, but much oftener curled the lips 
of the more enlightened into a smile of philosophical 
contempt. Palpably fictitious, rarely possessing the 
merit of ingenuity, and, in general, absolutely puerile, 
yet have the monkish legends been consecrated as di- 
vine in the Catholic Mass-book, enforced upon the ac- 
ceptance of the obstinate by the terrors of the Inquisi- 
tion, and sometimes mistaken by history for actual 
events. 

This ludicrous mass consists in part of magnified and 
distorted events of true history, and in part of person- 
ages and details entirely spurious. It is elaborately 
ornamented, or degraded with circumstancial accounts 



76 MONASTIC VOW OF 

of miracles which were never performed, with reports 
of debates which never took place, and with details of 
battles which were never fought. Faithful only in 
transcribing their own vitiated taste and unscrupulous 
conscience ; and decorating their narratives with coarse 
scenes of blood and bigotry, of death and horror, of hell 
anddemons, they have furnished a record of absurdities, 
of a depth of hypocrisy, of an audacity in fabrication, 
and of a total depravity in principle unparalleled in the 
history of deception and imposition. Had they, like 
Sir Thomas Moore, in his description of Eutopia, or no 
place, described a people which were no people, a city 
which was invisible, and a river which was waterless, 
they could scarcely have been less imaginary, though it 
must be conceded that they are less entertaining and 
instructive. 

Passing over the polemical rubbish, the absurd topics 
of discussion and the ludicrous logic of the monastic 
orders, which would be too tedious for a reader of the 
nineteenth century, we will briefly allude to some of 
their amusing legends, which have been consecrated as 
sacred history in the devotional books of the church. 
The actual sufferings and deaths of the primitive Chris- 
tians, they have grotesquely magnified, and invented 
fanciful modes of torture, which never could have en- 
tered the more cultivated brain of a Roman emperor. 

According to the story of these visionists, when a Pa- 
gan female embraced Christianity, she was often com- 
pelled to decide whether she valued her virtue higher 
than she did her religion ; and, when the inflexibility of 
her faith imperiled her innocence, a divine power 
always interposed, and miraculously rescued her from a 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 77 

dangerous predicament. The male converts were sub- 
jected to similar modes of ingenious torture. A young 
saint, in the passion of his first love, according to their 
authority, was once chained naked to a bed of flowers, 
and in this hapless and exposed condition, wontonly 
assaulted by a beautif nl courtezan ; but he saved his 
chastity by biting off his tongue. St. Cecilia made a 
vow of perpetual virginity, but her father disregarding 
the unnatural obligation, betrothed her to a prince. In 
spite of all remonstrances to the contrary, the marriage 
was on the eve of being consummated, when an angel 
interposed, and, after satisfactorily adjusting matters 
between the nuptial parties, rewarded the groom for the 
relinquishment of his bride, and the virgin for the ob- 
stinacy of her resolution, by crowning them both with 
wreaths of spiritual roses and lilies, culled from heaven's 
flower garden. Sometime after the eventful occurences 
of this wedding party, Amachius, a Eoman prefect, 
commanded Cecilia to sacrifice to the gods. Her piety 
obliging her to disobey the royal injunction, it was de- 
termined that the majesty of the law should be vindi- 
cated by having her boiled three days and three nights 
in a pot of water. The coldness of divine grace how- 
ever sufficiently impregnated her body to protect it 
from injury. As her piety had rendered her invulner- 
able to the effects of boiling water, the emperor ordered 
the executioner to try the virtue of a ponderous axe. 
Accordingly she was laid upon the block ; the execu-r 
tioner gave her neck three scientific strokes, but per 5 
ceiving her head still attached by its integuments, 
desisted from further effort convinced that the accom- 
plishment of the task exceeded his constitutional vigor. 

7* 



78 MONASTIC VOW OP 

The miraculous feat of this saint in inventing music, a 
long time after all nations had acquired some proficien- 
cy, at least, in its principles, has often been the theme of 
pious historians, orators and poets. St. George slew a 
dragon ( a lizard ), which was about to swallow a king's 
daughter. St. Dennis walked two miles after his head 
had been cut off. St. John of God displayed so much 
whimsical zeal that he was supposed to be demented, 
and was placed in a lunatic asylum. St. Hubert went 
on a hunting excursion, and seeing a stag with a cross 
between its antlers, became converted by the vision into 
a bishop. He received a key from St. Peter, which is 
still preserved in St. Hubert's monastery, at Ardennes, 
and is regarded as an infallible remedy for the hydro- 
phobia. St. Patrick found a lost boy, whom the hogs 
had nearly devoured. On touching the mutilated frame 
with his holy hand, it recovered the lost flesh which 
had been digested by the swine, and stood before the 
saint perfectly proportioned in all its parts, and with- 
out a wound. This charitable saint once fed 1,400 per- 
sons on one cow, two stags, and two wild boars. 
Respecting, however, the rights of property, and per- 
ceiving that to be benevolent at another's expense was 
a suspicious species of morality, he so adroitly con- 
trived the management of his miracle that the cow 
which had been eaten up by the people, and which 
belonged to a poor widow, was seen the next day well 
and hearty, and as comfortably grazing in her usual 
pastures as if nothing had happened. St. Xavier, 
while traversing the ocean, lost overboard a crucifix. 
On landing, a crab brought it in his claw, and rever- 
ently laid it at his feet. The Devil, assuming the 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 79 

shape of a charming woman, once made indelicate pro- 
posals to him. This piece of impudence so enraged the 
saint that he spit into His Satanic Majesty's angelic 
face. The Devil, being a gentleman, was so disgusted 
at this coarse vulgarity, that he ever afterward shunned 
Xavier's society. St. Anthony of Padua, after exhaust- 
ing the strength of the Catholic arguments in favor of 
consubstantiation, in a debate with a heretic, finally 
converted his antagonist by an appeal to the under- 
standing of a horse. Holding up the host before the an- 
imal, he addressed it thus : "In virtue and in the name 
of thy creator, I command thee, horse to come, and 
with humility adore thy God." The horse, at the re- 
quest of the saint, instantly left the corn which it was 
eating, advanced to the host and fell upon its knees be- 
fore it. 

St. Andrew being assaulted by the devil with an axe, 
and by a company of imps with clubs, called for assist- 
ance on St. John, who responded with a regiment of 
angels ; and capturing the devils, chained them to the 
ground. At this exploit St. Andrew laughed. The 
Emperor Maximus, having cut St. Apia Tell into ten 
pieces, the angel Gabriel put him together again. This 
contest of disintegration and recomposition was carried 
on with much spirit between Maximus and Gabriel. 
Ten times a day for ten consecutive days was the saint 
cut into ten pieces by the malice of the one, and put to- 
gether again by the anatomical skill of the other. St. 
Martin of Tours, the patron saint of drunkards, whose 
festival was formerly celebrated by the devout with 
banqueting, hilarity and carousals, once, on a drunken 
frolic, divided his garments with a poor soldier. At 



80 MONASTIC VOW OF 

night, in a dream, lie beheld Christ wearing the identi- 
cal garment he had given away. His mind became so 
impressed, probably deranged, that he turned Catholic. 
The face of this saint was so sanctimonious that it once 
paralyzed the arm of a robber, which was raised to give 
him a death blow. He wrought many miracles ; could 
raise the dead to life. Clovis, after his Gothic victory, 
made him a rich donation ; and as the hero's war steed 
was in the saint's stable, he proposed besides, to redeem 
it w T ith the generous sum of 100 ducats, but the pious 
horse refused to move until the sum was doubled. St. 
Anthony saw a centaur in the desert. Finding the 
corpse of the hermit Paul in the wilderness, and being 
too much prostrated through fasting to bury it, two 
lions seeing his difficulty, politely offered their assist- 
ance ; and after digging a grave and depositing in it 
the hermit's corpse, respectfully vanished away. St. 
Athanasius compliments him on account of his holy ab- 
horence of clean water, and for not having suffered his 
feet to be contaminated with it except in cases of una- 
voidable necessity. ( Vet. Ant., c. 47 ), St. Palladus, 
seeing a hyena standing near his cave, addressing it, 
asked : " What's the matter ?" " Holy father," replied 
the beast, " the odor of thy sanctity has reached me. 
I killed a sheep last night, and want to confess and 
get absolution." St. Beuno caused the earth to open and 
swallow a disappointed lover, who had cut off the head 
of his mistress for her having refused to marry him. 
He then, by saying mass over the remains of the unfortu- 
nate lady, caused her head and body to reunite, and life 
to reanimate her frame. St. Nepomuk, refusing to dis- 
close the secret confessions of a queen, to her husband 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 81 

who suspected her of infidelity, was doomed to suffer 
death by drowning. This saint was canonized by Pope 
Innocent III., and his tomb is shown to this day. But 
Unfortunately for the infallibility of His Holines, it has 
been indisputably proved that no such person as St. 
Nepomuk ever existed. A priest once travelling along 
a solitary road, heard a most harmonious sound pro- 
ceeding from a beehive. On approaching it he discov- 
ered that the bees were adoring the eucharist, and sing- 
ing psalms to its honor. A monk residing at the mon- 
astery of Tebenoe was visited by an angel who dictated 
to him a liturgy. This divine work is preferred by the 
learned Oassion. St. Ambrose, piously inhuman, care- 
fully instilled into the youthful minds of Theodosius and 
Gratian the spirit and maxims of religious persecution. 
He taught them that the worship of idols was a crime 
against God, and that an emperor is guilty of the crime 
he neglects to punish. All the intolerant laws and 
horrible religious butcheries which disgraced the ad- 
ministrations of these princes, and their successors, 
originated in their Catholic education. The same saint 
justified the conduct of a bishop who had been convicted 
by the court of setting fire to a Jewish Synagogue. 
( Tom. ii. Epistle xl. p. 946 ). St. Augustine, whose 
most conspicuous virtue was an uncompomising hatred 
of heretics, warmly commended the inhuman edicts of 
Honorius against the Donatists, which proscribed and 
banished several thousands of their priests, stripped 
them of their possessions, deprived their laymen of the 
rights of citizens, distracted the land with tumult and 
blood, and drove a large number of them to seek relief 
by invoking martyrdom. The inhuman saint rejoiced 



82 MONASTIC VOW OF 

at the despair and madness which shortened the lives of 
these unfortunate persons, as it would hereafter lessen 
their torments in hell. St. Jerome justly denounced 
the disgraceful practice of the clergy in defrauding the 
natural heirs out of their inheritance, and vindicated 
the governmental edicts to obstruct this systematic 
plunder. But his brother monks recriminated ; charged 
him with being the lover of Paula, of profanely bestow- 
ing on her the title of mother-in-law of God, of assign- 
ing himself the chief place in her will, of inducing her 
to abandon her infant son at Rome, of exercising an un- 
due influence on her beautiful daughter, and of induc- 
ing the mother to consecrate her to perpetual virginity, 
so that he might encounter no obstacles in inheriting 
her immense possessions, in which was comprehended 
the city of Necropolis. To these charges he replied 
that he was merely the steward of the poor. With the 
fortune of Paula he built four monasteries. He was 
bitterly opposed to St Chrysostom, who boldly de- 
nounced the corruption and licentiousness of the clergy 
and imperial court. Readily and maliciously he coin- 
cided with the opinion of Theophilus, that Chrysostom 
had delivered his soul to the Devil to be adulter- 
ated ; and when zeal in the cause of virtue had brought 
upon the head of Chrysostom the wrath of the emperor 
and the court, and he was incarcerated in a dungeon, 
these two lights of the church had the decency to re- 
gret that some punishment more adequate to his guilt 
was not inflicted. St. Cyril, of Alexandria, piously 
lusted after temporal power, and, as the patriotic No- 
vitians obstructed his designs, he closed their churches, 
took forcible possession of their sacred utensils, plun- 



SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 83 

dered the dwelling of Theapentus, their bishop ; and 
then seizing on the Jewish synagogue, drove the Jews 
from the city and pillaged their houses. The governor 
interposed ; hut five hundred armed monks surrounded 
him and attempted to murder him. Hypatia, a lady 
celebrated for her personal charms, unblemished char- 
acter, and extraordinary literary acquirements, was, on 
account of her Novitian proclivities, assaulted by the 
holy forces of St. Cyril, dragged from her carriage, 
and punctured to death with tiles. 

The enumeration of the fables of the monks, and of 
the atrocious acts of canonized saints, might be con- 
tinued until it filled huge volumes ; but well-informed 
"Catholics will be thankful that this notice is so brief. 
The Missil, the Glories of Mary and other Catholic com- 
pendia, some of which consist of fifty folio volumes, will 
satisfy the more curious. The profound homage paid to 
the monks for supposed sanctity, and the inquisitorial 
terrors which were brought to bear in favor of their 
frauds, so blunted public perception to truth that the 
fictitious events and personages invented by one age 
were believed by the succeeding, until the church be- 
came the simple dupe of its own forgeries, and self- 
cursed by accepting, as matters of fact, the fables and 
impositions with which it had humbugged former ages. 
Meldegg, Catholic Professor of the Theological Faculty 
of Freiburg, affords the following testimony in favorof 
what has been stated : " The old breviary," says he, 
"crammed full of fictitious or much-colored anecdotes 
of saints, with passages of indecorous import, requires a 

thorough revision Some Masses are founded on 

stories not sufficiently proved, or palpably ficttcious, as 



84 MONASTIC VOW OF SILENT CONTEMPLATION. 

the Mass of the Lancea Christi, the Inventio Crusis, &c." 
The ludicrousness of the monastic vow of silent con- 
templation is visible in the misshapen ideas of the 
monks ; its pernicious tendency, in the frauds, perver- 
sions, distortions and interpolation which it has led 
them to perpetrate ; its bigotry, in the wide destruction 
of ancient literature to which it has incited them ; its 
absurdness, in the puerile and contemptible productions 
which it has induced them to elaborate ; and its immor- 
ality, in that coarseness and vulgarity in their literature, 
so offensive to a sense of propriety, and which some- 
times makes an allusion to their works a matter of re- 
luctance. 



CHAPTER VI. 
The Monastic Vow of Poverty. 

The monachal vows which we have considered in the 
foregoing chapters were assumed by all the religious 
orders prior to the thirteenth century. At that period 
orders were inaugurated to assist in the administration of 
the public affairs of the church. As these orders as- 
sumed obligations incompatible with the observance of 
silence and seclusion, the vows imposing them were not 
enjoined. But the vow of poverty, which will be the 
subject of the present chapter, and the vow of celibacy 
and obedience, which will hereafter be considered, were 
assumed by all the religious orders, both antecedent and 
subsequent to the thirteenth century. 

The vow of poverty embraced an unqualified abjura- 
tion of all right to acquire or hold individual property, 
but granted the privilege of owning property in a cor- 
porate capacity. This privilege was, however, variously 
restricted by the terms of different monastic charters. 
The Carmelites and the Augustines were permitted to 
hold such an amount of real estate as would be sufficient 
for their support ; the Dominicans were limited to the 
possession of personal property ; while the Franciscans 
were not allowed to hold either real estate or personal 
property. 

The vow of poverty assumed by tha monks was 

adopted either from the instigations of an artful policy, 

to acquire wealth with the reputation of despising it, or 

from a conviction that poverty was a blessing and 
8 



86 MONASTIC VOW OF 

wealth an evil. If the first hypothesis is correct, the 
assumption of the vow was exceedingly reprehensible ; 
if the second, it was absolutely absurd. 

A condition of poverty, abstractly considered, is a 
matter of neither praise nor censure. It is sometimes a 
source of degredation ; often of crime, and always of in- 
convenience and embarrassment. Its general tendency 
is to weaken in man his inborn sense of personal inde- 
pendence ; to debase his mind with notions of fictitious 
inferiority ; to degrade his social dignity by inducing 
sycophantic and obsequious habits ; and to lead him to 
sacrifice his conscious equality to the demands of arti- 
ficial rank. The incessant toil imposed by poverty on 
the energies of the poor obdurates their nature ; and, 
allowing no interval for mental culture, permits nothing 
to interrupt or soften its tendency. The mortifying 
difficulties experienced by this class of society to obtain, 
by honest labor, a subsistence for themselves and their 
natural dependents, have sometimes led them to become 
depredators upon society, when their constitutional 
principles, unwarped by indigence, would have secured 
their obedience to law and their labors for the public 
good. Graces have been lost in brothels, and talents 
extinguished on scaffolds, which, had tolerable means 
protected against the cravings of hunger, might have 
added lustre to the female character, and heroes, states- 
men and scholars to the scroll of fame. Poverty beget- 
ting despair, and despair destroying hope, the incentive 
to action, the powers of genius sunk into the torpidity 
of stupefaction, and the strength of a lion slumbered in 
the inactivity of a sloth. The chill which poverty 
breathes over the mind is as unfriendly to the unfold- 



POVERTY.' 87 

ing of the intellectual germs, as the icy atmosphere of 
winter is to the fructification of vegetable seed. The 
poet or philosopher, hoveled in penury, without 
books or scientific instruments, with spare meals and 
gloomy forebodings, never creates his brightest gem, 
nor solves his profoundest problem. However sweetly 
Burns may sing or Otway melt, or however importantly 
other sons of indigence may have contributed to the 
augmentation of the volume of science and literature, 
yet the world has never heard their sweetest song, nor 
read their brightest period ; for the groan of penury has 
marred the harmony of the one, and the tear of want 
has dimmed the lustre of the other. 

As a condition of poverty is, in the abstract, a subject 
of neither praise nor blame, so also is a condition of 
wealth. "Wealth, however, is the ablest means of ad- 
vancing individual and social progress, as well as the 
sole remedy for the evils of poverty. If it cannot be 
adduced as a ground of esteem or of respectability, or 
as an apology for the ignorance, stupidity, pomposity, 
vanity and vulgarity with which it may adventitiously 
be associated, yet, as it amplifies the means of ben- 
eficence, and protects the weakness of human nature 
against temptation arising from indigence, its honest 
acquisition is always consistent with the severest prin- 
ciples of rectitude ; and its pursuit is recommended by 
the honorable pride of personal responsibility, the mo- 
tives of prudence and forecast, and the consideration of 
every domestic and social obligation. Without its aid 
the world would have remained in a state of primal 
barbarism ; the commercial intercourse of nations, the 
first element of civilization and the principal source of 



88 MONASTIC VOW OF 

national prosperity, power and greatness, would never 
have been known ; agricultural, manufacturing, mechan- 
ical and mining interests, unstimulated by the lucrative 
traffic of supplying a foreign demand for surplus domes- 
tic production, would never have been extensively de- 
veloped; the knowledge, the exotic luxuries, and the 
improvments in the comforts and conveniences of civil- 
ized life derived from international trade, could never 
have been obtained ; the great bond of the amity of na- 
tions, and the power created by the pecuniary advan- 
tages of exchanging with one-another the products of 
their different climates, and which, by dissipating mu- 
tual prejudices, suspicion, vanity and self-conceit, has 
united them in friendly and beneficial intercourse, would 
never have existed ; and, as the first altars were erected 
for the exposure of merchandise for sale, as the first 
offerings were the currency by which goods were pur- 
chased, penalties satisfied, salaries paid, and amity and 
friendship expressed ; and, as the first temples were 
market-houses built for the accommodation of the traffic 
of the caravans, and to protect the goods against plun- 
dering barbarians, who understood not the conventional 
rights of property, had it not been for the fact that in 
the pursuit of wealth, communities felt the importance 
of establishing convenient centres of trade and modes 
of exchange, the ceremonies of religion would never 
have been invented. ( See Heeron's Historical Re- 
searches, translated by Bancroft). 

As neither a condition of poverty nor a condition of 
wealth is a subject of praise nor censure ; but, as the 
former inflicts on humanity its worst evils, and the lat- 
ter confers on it incalculable advantages, a vow of pov- 



POVERTY. 89 

erty can have no innate sanctity to commend it, but must 
have all constituents that can render it objectionable. 
When it is further considered that there is a modifying 
reciprocity incessantly acting between the conditions of 
the different members of the human family, making the 
prosperity of one advantageous to all, and the indi- 
gence of one disadvantageous to all, we may find not 
only a selfish, but also a patriotic incentive in availing 
ourselves of any pecuniary right of our being. No one 
can be indigent without decreasing the wealth of ano- 
ther, nor opulent without contributing to the subsistence 
of others, nor industrious without adding to the sum of 
national wealth, nor indolent without consuming that 
for which he renders no equivalent. Now, as the vow 
of poverty is inconsistent with the virtues and obliga- 
tions created by the mutual dependence and reciprocal 
influence of the condition and circumstances of man- 
kind on each other; as it fosters all the evils that 
demoralize the social state ; as it multiplies the number 
of paupers, discourages industry, sanctifies pernicious 
influences, and burdens society with the support of in- 
dolent and useless members, it is at variance with the 
interests of man and the prosperity of government. 

National wealth is the aggregate of individual 
wealth. The greater is the amount of individual 
wealth in a nation, and the more equally it is distri- 
buted among the inhabitants, the less are the evils of 
poverty, the more independent and responsible are the 
citizens, the more energetically are the agricultural, 
mineral, manufacturing, and commercial interests devel- 
oped, the more generally and intimately are the inter- 
ests of the people interwoven with the fabric of the 
8* 



90 MONASTIC VOW OP 

government, the greater will be the nation s prosperity, 
the more formidable its arms, the more peaceful its in- 
ternal condition, and the more durable its prosperity. 

A reformatory institution, to be efficacious, must 
be adapted to the nature of man and his socia 
condition. Its principles must be his principles. 
Its measures must tend to aid his fullest development. 
To accomplish this object it must seek to abolish all re- 
strictions on his rights, to remove whatever vitiates his 
sense of independence, to incite his industry by making 
labor honorable and its rewards certain, and to annul 
the immunities, exemptions, privileges and monopolies 
which degrade the masses by indigence and invidious 
distinctions, and corrupt the few by luxury and ficti- 
tious dignity. But the monachal institution, which 
sanctions poverty, the most prolific source of crime ; 
which denounces individual wealth, the great element 
of civilization, and of individual and national improve- 
ment ; which inculcates indolence, the parasite that 
feeds on the vitals of society ; which discourages the 
avocations of industry, the parent of personal inde- 
pendence and responsibility ; and which aims at a mo- 
nopoly of wealth, itself the source of political inequal- 
ity, of despotic government and of popular servitude — 
can advance no claim to a magnanimous mission. To 
es-teem it a virtue to be poor, pleasing to infinite intel- 
ligence to renounce the best means of self- improvement, 
criminal to protect human integrity against the assaults 
originating in a condition of poverty, are ideas of such 
an absurd nature that the inference can scarcely be 
avoided, that the source whence they originated must 
have been utterly destitute, not only of moral principle, 
but of common sense. 



POVERTY. 91 

But whenever conduct becomes enigmatical, and prin- 
ciples are avowed contradictory to human reason, pas- 
sion and interests, an ordinary knowledge of the craft 
of ambition is apt to suggest a suspicion, that these 
singular abnegations have not sprung from a sanctity 
that has elevated the avowers above human nature, but 
from the injustice of their designs and the profundity of 
their dissimulation. Conscious that candor would be de- 
feat, they have endeavored to accomplish objects by 
pretending to oppose them. The church never being 
too strongly fortified in holiness not to practise the ad- 
vantageous vices of the world, has invariably been 
betrayed into the adoption of this crafty policy ; but, 
always fanatical, she has never been discreet. Not 
only has she denied her real designs, but, in order to 
conceal them, has imposed vows of such an absurd 
and inconsistent import, as could not fail to reveal the 
hypocrisy and craft that dictated them. The vow of 
poverty was not assumed to become indigent, but to 
become opulent. It was a financial manoeuvre, designed 
to facilitate the routine of business ; and it proved a 
very efficacious means of self-emolument. It won a 
reputation for the holy beggars, that humbled imperial 
dignity at their feet. Theodosius refused sustenance 
until a monk who had anathematized him, nullified it 
by absolution. The Empress of Maximus, in her own 
palace, at her own table, esteemed it a high honor to be 
permitted to wait as a servant on St. Martin of Tours. 
While the assumption of unnatural vows invested the 
mendicant monks with the credit and importance of 
supernatural beings, and elevated them above the dig- 
nity of emperors and empresses, it opened to their 



92 MONASTIC VOW OF 

avarice the treasures of the world, and enabled them 
not only to fill their coffers with the people's money* 
but to win their blessing in the act of defrauding them. 
Such was the haughty indifference of the Abbot Pambo, 
who seemed to imagine, with his church, that he was 
the owner of the wealth of the world, that when Mala- 
ria, a rich sinner, presented him a donation of plate for 
his monastery, and intimated that its weight was about 
three hundred pounds, replied : " Offer you this to me 
or to God ? If to God, who weighs the mountains in a 
balance, he need not be informed of the weight of your 
plate." The real design and value of the monastic vows 
was once forcibly expressed by a Benedictine monk, 
who remarked : " My vow of poverty has given me 
one hundred thousand crowns a year ; my vow of obe- 
dience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." 
An incident occurred in Paris, in relation to two eccle- 
siastical dignitaries which illustrates the cupidity and 
unapostolic character of the church. Innocent IX. and 
St. Thomas Aquinas having met together in Paris, and 
a capacious plate, piled with gold, the proceeds of the 
sale of indulgences, being brought into the room in 
which they were seated, the enraptured Pope exclaimed : 
'■ Behold, the days are past when the church could say, 
gold and silver have I none." But the saint truthfully 
remarked: "The days are also past when the church 
could say to the paralytic, arise and walk." Praetaxta- 
tus, a Pagan philosopher, viewing the princely rev- 
enues of the church, declared that if he could become 
bishop of Home, it might even remove his scruples 
about believing in Christianity. 

Assuming the strongest possible obligations to main- 



POVERTY. 93 

tain a perpetual condition of absolute poverty, the 
monks yet found it compatible with the principles and 
teachings of the church, to convert their religious or- 
ganizations into a financial corporation, and to conceal 
its character and design under a veil of angelic piety. 
The wealth which they apparently scorned, they unscru- 
pulously amassed ; the power which they scoffed at 
as profane, they attempted to monopolize ; to whatever 
they seemed the most indifferent, they the most sedu- 
lously labored to acquire ; and whatever they professed 
with their lips they violated in their practice. This 
consummate hypocrisy might be condemned by the pro- 
fane sceptic, but the means crowned the end with too 
high a degree of success not to be justified by the piety 
of the religious orders. 

The measures and designs of this false and crafty 
policy harmonized too well with the pretensions of the 
Pope, and furnished his purposes with too able and in- 
genious an auxiliary, not to command his fostering care 
and protection. Equal in duplicity and rapaciousness, 
he exempted the mendicant orders from all secular 
and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, privileged them to de- 
mand alms without restriction, invested them with the 
exclusive power of selling indulgences, and conferred 
on them the lucrative prerogative of accepting legacies 
under the evasive name of offerings. By this munifi- 
cent lavishment of spiritual favors, the mendicant or- 
ders soon found themselves transported from an apparent 
condition of pauperism to a real condition of princely 
wealth and power; enjoying at the same time all the 
sympathy that indigence could excite, and all the lux- 
ury that money could purchase. Exempted from secu- 



94 MONASTIC VOW OF 

lar jurisdiction, they were empowered to plunder, ravish 
and murder with impunity ; privileged to demand alms 
of all, they were the masters of the fortunes of all ; 
endowed with the exclusive power of vending indulg- 
ences, they enjoyed a monopoly of the most lucrative 
trade that was ever projected; and, allowed to receive 
legacies, they were enabled, after having wheedled the 
devout out of their treasure while in health, to take 
advantage of their dotage, and to stand over their 
dying pillow, and dictate the terms of their last testa- 
ment to the advantage of the church, and to the disad- 
vantage of natural heirs. 

Avarice, like the cormorant, is insatiable ; the more 
it is gorged, the keener is its appetite ; and this rapa- 
cious demon having taken complete possession of the 
monastic body, every dollar that its craft wrung from 
the devout only inflamed its greediness the more. 
When it had exhausted the gold of a penitent, its cove- 
tous eye became fascinated by his land ; and, what 
avarice craved, financial sagacity quickly perceived an 
available method of obtaining. 

The church possessing no inherent moral vitality, 
sank with the middle ages into barbarism ; her power 
was then supreme, but insecurity of life and property 
prevailed, and under her auspices temporal power de- 
generated to a system of rapine and plunder. Had she 
been divine, she would then have beamed as a lone star 
on a tempestuous ocean ; but being earthy, she resem- 
bled the other earthy compounds ; nor could she well 
be distinguished from the barbarians and savages with 
whom she mingled, except by her imperfect notions of 
morality and justice, and her superior financial skill 



POVERTY. 95 

in speculating on public calamity. The barons, in the 
support of their interminable wars, had taxed their 
subjects to an extent which produced general dissatis- 
faction. As the monasteries enjoyed inviolability and 
freedom from taxation, they offered the disaffected a 
refuge from an oppressive taxation, if they would be- 
come lay monastic members, and convey their worldly 
goods to the church. A wish to inhale the supposed 
holy atmosphere of the monasteries, to partake of their 
luxuries, to enjoy the indulgence they accorded to the 
commission of sin, to evade an impoverishing taxation, 
and at the same time to retain some degree of personal 
freedom, induced wealthy persons of both sexes to con- 
clude contracts with the monasteries, by which they be- 
came penniless, wholly dependent for subsistence on 
them, and irrevocably subjected to their despotic domi- 
nation. 

Beside this shrewd speculation on public calamity, 
the excitement and irruption of the crusades afforded 
the monks another opportunity for the exercise of their 
financial skill. With the instinctive foresight of cupid- 
ity, they had perceived the pecuniary advantages which 
would accrue to their order in the course of the holy 
war about to be inaugurated ; and as they had fanned 
its first sparks into a general conflagration, they could 
hardly have any conscientious scruples in remunerating 
themselves, by concluding such sharp and profitable 
bargains as occasion presented and vows facilitated. 
They well knew the commercial art of bartering that 
which was worthless for that which was valuable ; and 
of advancing the market price of an article by a mo- 
nopoly of it, or depressing its value by increasing the 



96 MONASTIC VOW OF 

supply beyond the demand. In consequence of the 
public excitement real estate became greatly depressed 
in value, and holy war-horses, clubs, lances, battle- 
axes, and other sacred instruments of destruction, pro- 
portionally advanced in price. The sagacious provi- 
dence of the monks having in advance accomulated 
vast military stores, very obligingly accommodated the 
devout crusader, by exchanging an inconsiderable por- 
tion of them for a very considerable tract of his land. 
By such operations the church obtained very extensive 
domains in exchange for objects of trifling value, or for 
very inadequate sums of money. The success of the 
sacerdotal financiers becoming notorious, land specu- 
lation grew into a contagious mania. Even kings came 
into the market to buy up the domains of their deluded 
vassels. The competition between monks and mon- 
archs was as great as it was amusing ; but sacerdotal 
craft was the more successful negotiator. The oil 
with which the priests had been anointed at their ordi- 
nation was supposed to endow them with the power of 
bestowing blessings and curses at will, and the high rep- 
utation for sanctity which they had acquired by vows 
'of absolute poverty, conferred advantages of trade on 
them which crowns and sceptres could not command. 
Kings could purchase only with money ; but the mon- 
asteries had an exhaustless bank of indulgences, of part- 
ing blessings, of promised prayers, and of promised 
masses for departed souls. This bogus currency may 
provoke the levity of the profane, but it was, neverthe- 
less, prized by the saints above the value of silver or 
gold, and held by the monasteries at its highest market- 
able price. With the command of such unlimited re- 



POVERTY. 97 

sources, the monasteries could successfully outbid 
princes, and purchase without impoverishment what 
monarchs could not without bankruptcy. 

With an air of piety and benevolence, but with an 
unscrupulousness that regarded neither truth nor prin- 
ciple, the monks invented every fiction, and adopted 
every possible method of augmenting the stores of their 
wealth. Well aware that human piety is more easily 
inflamed by the prospect of gold than by the prospect 
of heaven, they manufactured extravagant reports of 
the wealth of Jerusalem ; representing it as a vast 
storehouse of gems and precious metal. So glowing 
were these descriptions that the piety of the crusaders 
became excited into frenzy, and their devotion into irre- 
pressible vociferousness ; a delightful anticipation rapt 
them into heavenly ecstacies ; and impatience for the 
glorious results of the coming combat appeared to be 
the only unpleasant ingredient that marred their hap- 
piness. On huts and farms, on palaces and domains, 
they looked down with scornful indifference; for they 
felt that wealth surpassing the treasures of the Indies, 
and palaces more gorgeous than Europe could build, 
would inevitably raward their pious adventure. The 
cool-headed priest, too well informed to partake of the^ 
general delusion, deliberately viewed the enthusiasm, 
and calmly calculated by what means it might be sus- 
tained and augmented, and how it could most judi- 
ciously be made to administer to the pecuniary advan- 
tage of the church. While the coldness with which the 
reason and conscience of priests secretly regarded the 
general lunacy, was well disguised, the masses, on 

the contrary, were all flame and fury, and wrought up 
9 



93 MONASTIC VOW OF 

to such, a pitch of anxiety to wrest the holy land from 
the Infidels and appropriate it to themselves, that they 
became indifferent to the treasure and land that they 
already possessed. In this unhealthy state of the pub- 
lic mind, it was an easy task for spiritual advisers to 
relieve their confiding pupils of their revenues, and ul- 
timately to become the proprietors of many of their 
domains. 

The method by which this magnificent object was ac- 
complished, was not only by the treachery of exchang- 
ing trumpery for valuables, but also by inducing the 
soldiers of the cross to devolve, during their absence, 
.the care of their land and revenues on the monasteries, 
and to make them their heirs-at-law in case of death 
abroad. As but few of the crusaders of some of the 
expeditions ever returned, as many of all of them per- 
ished abroad, we must accord the credit of extraordi- 
nary shrewdness to the calculating cupidity of the 
monks, who could make the love, devotion, lunacy and 
enthusiasm of the devout, their life at home and death 
abroad, equally advantageous to the monastic coffers. 
As the infatuation, so beneficial to the church, was gen- 
eral ; as the convulsions of the times rendered property 
of all descriptions exceedingly insecure ; and, as many 
of the devout, equally frantic with the crusaders, were 
restrained, either by infirmity or other circumstances, 
from embarking in the holy enterprise, it was not diffi- 
cult for the monks, amid the general frenzy, to induce 
such persons to become lay members of the monasteries, 
and to place their domains under the protection of 
those powerful institutions ; an advantageous encum- 
brance which they always assumed with obliging avidity. 



POVEKTY. 99 

"With such, money-making devices and sharp prac- 
tices, and many others of a similar nature, the mendi- 
cant orders, united in an avaricious and arrogant con- 
federacy, enjoying the protection of the Pope, and the 
confidence and homage of Christendom, and released 
from all secular and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, seemed, 
while abjuring the possession of property as a crime, 
and professing poverty as a virtue, to be rapidly mo- 
nopolizing the wealth of the world — the domains of 
princes, the traffic of merchants, and the political power 
of governments. Under such circumstances monastic 
opulence, without the intervention of a miracle, must 
have prodigiously increased, and their domains aug- 
mented to provinces. 

From the fifth century, in every section of Chris- 
tendom, monastery after monastery .continued to rise, 
generally constructed with stupendous proportions, and 
in sumptuous style ; furnished with every species of 
luxury, and polluted by every description of vice. 
St. Bernard, who, by the assumption of the vow of 
absolute poverty, renounced a considerable private in- 
heritance, and who subsequently scorned the proffers of 
lucrative dignities, could, nevertheless, by means of his 
monachal power and opulence erect ten monasteries, 
make nobles and Popes tremble at his authority, and 
even kings submit to his dictation. 

The Jesuits, who enjoyed all the privileges of the 
mendicant and secular orders, excelled them both in 
duplicity and rapaciousnes. Animated by a crafty and 
unprincipled zeal for the emolument of their order, 
they established mission-houses among savage nations, 
under the pretext of civilizing them and saving their 



100 MONASTIC VOW OF 

souls. But this specious pretext was but a pious mask, 
under which was concealed an infamous scheme of 
swindling the natives abroad out of property, and 
Wheedling the devout at home out of liberal donations, 
and splendid legacies. Their extensive mission-houses 
were neither designed for temples of devotion, nor for 
converting idolaters; their walls less frequently wit- 
nessed the monks at devotion, than they did at plotting 
schemes of plunder. Like ancient temples, and more 
recent churches, mosques and fairs, they were designed 
as centres of trade to facilitate commercial transactions ; 
and, as they were the grand resort of the people for ex- 
change of commodities, they, like the former, gave rise 
to the numerous villages, towns and cities, whose names 
they bear. Pagan simplicity has never been a match 
for monkish craft; and no sooner had the gold and 
gems of the natives inflamed the zeal and sharpened 
the shrewdness of the monks, than they were wrung 
from them by some swindling transaction. Possess- 
ing the arts of civilized society, they were enabled 
to astonish the natives with miracles, and success- 
fully to impose on their ignorance and simplicity. They 
boasted of having induced multitudes to embrace Chris- 
tianity ; but as their object was not to convert Pagans 
from idolatry, but to defraud them out of their land 
and gold, they were careful not to offend them by de- 
manding a renunciation of the practice of idolatry, but 
contented themselves with entreating their converts 
simply to adore Christ and his mother when worship- 
ing the images of their gods. With this ambiguous, but 
insinuating modification of Christianity, they made for- 
tunes out of the devout at home and savages abroad. 



POVERTY. 101 

In 1743, this avaricious sacerdotal order established 
a mission-house at the island Martinique ; and so adroitly 
did they manage their Christianizing business opera- 
tions, that in a short time they monopolized the trade 
of that island, and of the surrounding islands. Their 
success naturally excited the jealousy of the secular 
merchants; and as they were generally regarded as 
destitute of commercial honor, and unprincipled in their 
ambition, a formidable opposition was easily fomented 
against them. This opposition, apparently justified by 
self-preservation, and the necessity of inaugurating a 
more liberal and enlightened commercial policy, im- 
paired to a considerable extent the interest and popu- 
larity of the sacerdotal establishments. At this stage 
of their history, a circumstance occured which culmin- 
ated in their disgrace. Two valuable cargoes had been 
consigned to them by their French correspondents. 
These cargoes were captured by the English, with 
whom the French were at war. In conformity with 
maritime usage, the consignors demanded indemnity of 
the Jesuits. The Jesuits denied the legality of the de- 
mand, and refused to give the satisfaction asked. An 
appeal was consequently taken to the King of France, 
who, deciding in favor of the consignors, demanded the 
Jesuits to make the required restitution. But their 
presumptuous piety led them to scorn his authority in 
the same temper in which they had rejected the prayer 
of his mercantile subjects. This insolent and treason- 
able conduct led the king to investigate the principles 
of their order ; and finally to abrogate it in all the 
states of France, as a political organization projected for 

the acquisition of power and riches. 
9* 



102 MONASTIC VOW OP 

By means of their Christianizing establishments in 
Paraguay and Uruguay, the Jesuits ruled the natives 
with despotic power, and acquired an immense amount 
of wealth. In 1750, Spain having by a commercial 
treaty ceded to Portugal seven districts of these do- 
mains, the monks at the head of an army of fourteen 
thousand men, compelled the contracting nations to an- 
nul the treaty ; but an attempt being afterwards made 
to assassinate the King of Portugal, the government 
declared the order of the Jesuits to be a treasonable 
organization, and confiscated all their posssessions in 
the dominion. The order of the Catholic Knights, in- 
corporated for the defense and propagation of the true 
faith, by the force of arms, like the monks, rapaciously 
acquired an incredible amount of riches while under 
the solemnest obligation to maintain a perpetual con- 
dition of absolute poverty. These holy organizations 
were exclusively military ; the sword was the only ar- 
gument they used. The Knights of St. John, with the 
vow of poverty on their lips, but with the sword of con- 
quest in their hand, amassed such extensive domains, 
that they gave their chief an annual salary of one 
million guilders. The Knights Templars, while they 
vowed absolute poverty, acquired by arms, forced loans, 
donations, bequests and other means, such a prodigious 
amount of wealth that they erected nine thousand vast 
and princely palaces, each enriched with extensive 
territory, and all powerful enough to maintain immu- 
nity from the jurisdiction of the savereign in whose 
kingdom they were located. The Teutonic Knights, 
while they abjured the rights of property, and swore 
never to allow its possession to tarnish their sanctity, 



POVEETY. 103 

wrung from Sweden all the territory that extends from 
the Oder along its banks to the Gulf of Finland. It is 
reported by travellers that the Shaggians, a barbarous 
tribe of Egypt, when meeting a foe, will exclaim: 
" Peace be with you," and thrust a lance in his heart. 
The wild mockery of these uncouth savages at avowed 
principles has been far exceeded by the conduct and 
profession of the monachal and military orders of the 
Catholic Church, whose vows were meant for imposition, 
and whose life was a scene of perjury. 

By the aid of magnificent revenues, the various 
orders of the religious paupers were enabled success- 
fully to negotiate for the most lucrative dignities of the 
church, and enjoyed the fairest prospects of becoming 
either bishops, cardinals or popes, and of obtaining the 
luxurious indolence, idolatrous reverence, and impious 
adulation they secured. The hypocritical devices of 
the ancient and modern Brahmins, of the Hindoo and 
Mohammedan monks, and of the priests and prophets of 
ancient Pagan nations have, in Christian countries, 
where no prejudice pleads in their favor, and where 
their origin and claims are candidly investigated, been 
justly' exposed to the scoffs and contempt of common 
sense ; and it is possible that under the same circum- 
stances, the monks, priests, ceremonies and dogmas of 
Catholicism, which resemble them as nearly as a type 
can its prototype, would sink to the same level. 

"When we calmly reflect on the monastic institution, 
and observe the financial principles on which it is organ- 
ized, the variety and prodigious traffic which has dis- 
tinguished its career, the immense treasure and domains 
it has acquired by fraud and artifice, it seems like some 



104 MONASTIC VOW OF 

gigantic financial corporation, projected for speculating 
in land, and for making money by the tricks of trade. 
"When we call to mind the avarice by which it has been 
actuated, the duplicity it has practised, and the impo- 
sitions of which it has been guilty, it appears to be a 
corporation organized to make money, regardless of 
every maxim of justice, and every principle of honor. 
When we consider how basely it has prostituted its 
privileges and immunities ; becoming superior to law to 
violate the principles of rectitude ; professing absolute 
indigence to demand, like a highwayman, a tribute of 
every one it chanced to meet, if not with a pistol in its 
hand, yet with an anathema at its disposal more dreaded 
by the superstitious than thousands of pistols, it looms 
up before the imagination as a corporation of outlaws, 
whose right is might, whose object is money, and whose 
profession is to plunder. "When we reflect on its pre- 
tention of vending for gold the pardon of sin, the favor 
of God, immunity for guilt, and protection against the 
future retribution of heaven, it appears like a corpora- 
tion of fiends which arrogates the prerogatives of deity, 
traffic in the hearts and souls of men, sport with their 
hopes and fears, and merchandise heaven and hell, time 
and eternity. And when we remember that the Eoman 
Catholic Church has incorporated these infamous relig- 
ious orders in her constitution, and has officially pro- 
nounced them to be her most useful members, and has 
thus sanctioned and made her own, all their duplicity, 
all their rapacity, all their swindling operations, all 
their highway robbery, and all their profanity, immo- 
rality and blasphemy, she seems like some black and 
midnight monster, dripping with human gore, an em- 



POVERTY. 105 

bodiment of every deformity, an incarnation of every 
loathsome, hideous and unsightly demon, and a just rep- 
resentation of the character and principles of the arch- 
fiend. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Monastic Vow of Celibacy,. 

Nature has organized man for the conjugal union. 
She has endowed him with powers adapted to its 
requirements ; with passions that aspire after its plea- 
sures and benefits, and with sensibilities that can be 
gratified only by the performance of its obligations. 
By the reciprocal relations, and the amiable intercourse 
which it establishes between the sexes, it furnishes an 
attractive means of mutual improvement, refining the 
grossness of the sensual propensities, and developing 
the noblest graces of the human character. By blend- 
ing masculine boldness with feminine delicacy, it takes 
rudeness from the one, and imparts energy to the other ; 
and thus contributes, in an eminent degree, to the form- 
ation of that equanimity of character which is the 
happy medium between extremes, and of that agree- 
able association of strength and urbanity which is best 
fitted to cope with the difficulties ncident to life. 

By 'an alliance of mutual affection and interests for 
life, it secures their highest development, and the most 
complete and undisturbed enjoyment of their benefits. 
It identifies the honor and interests of parents and 
children, securing affectionate protectors for helpless 
infancy, faithful guardians for inexperienced youth, and 
interested tutors for fitting the rising generation for 
the useful and noble stations of society ; and while it 
thus provides for children, it rewards the solicitude 



CELIBACY. 107 

of parents with a shelter in adversity, a support in de- 
clining age, and a name in posterity. 

But while such are the inducements of marriage, yet 
a regard to personal interest and happiness might deter 
a considerate person from assuming its obligations, when 
either a suitable companion has not been found, or 
pecuniary resources are insufficient to meet the domestic 
demands in a satisfactory manner. Pecuniary compe- 
tency and similarity of taste and disposition are requi- 
sites indispensable to connubial felicity. Without them 
marriage would be a source of privation, difficulty and 
alienation ; and family a painful encumbrance. When, 
therefore, fortune has withheld these essentials of con- 
jugal happiness, celibacy, in either sex, is more honor- 
able than matrimony. 

But to stifle the instincts that prompt to this union, 
and ungraciously to spurn the incalculable benefits it 
proffers, unrestrained by any prudential consideration, 
is to violate, without motive, the laws of human happi- 
ness, and neglect the fulfilment of the most important 
design of the organism of man. An act so unnatural 
is, perhaps, seldom contemplated, except under extreme 
mental depression, or under the singular delusions of 
which religious fanaticism is so prolific. Disappointed 
love, reverses of fortune, or the hope of becoming in- 
sensible to the wants of humanity by acquiring super- 
natural perfection, has sometimes induced the weak and 
superstitious to assume the monastic vow of perpetual 
celibacy. The motive of such conduct has always ori- 
ginated in emotion ; and though emotion is alwaya sin- 
cere, it is always fluctuating. A cloud that obscures 
the sun and casts a gloom over earth, soon passes away, 



108 MONASTIC VOW OF 

leaving the former in its natural brightness, and the lat- 
ter in its usual attractiveness. Not less ephemeral is 
the mental gloom which adversity or superstition may 
throw over the human mind. When the energies of 
acquisitiveness have been prostrated by repeated pecu- 
niary misfortunes ; when the warmth of ambition has 
been chilled by the wounds of reputation ; when the 
currents of love have been frozen by the cold breath of 
disappointment; the desolated heart may feel that its 
struggle for subsistence is vain, that its hopes of dis- 
tinction have perished, and that its ties of love are 
broken forever. But these despondent sensations are 
ephemeral ; they are the results of a temporary repose 
of passions which are rooted in the constitution of our 
nature, and which can be destroyed only with our being. 
Though despair may for a time throw a wintry gloom 
over the mind, yet hope will again bud and bloom, 
avarice will again sigh for wealth, ambition will again 
thirst for distinction, love will again yearn for com- 
panionship, and every passion resuming its natural 
energy will again create the emotions for which it was 
organized, and compel us to seek its appropriate gratifi- 
cation in the social, conjugal, or political relations which 
subsist in society. 

This revulsion is inevitable. It is as certain as the 
subsidence of a tempestuous torrent after having ex- 
hausted its energy, into its ordinary peaceful roll. As 
all emotions are ephemeral, so must be all the vows and 
resolutions which they generate. Each day brings 
with it new and unexpected events, which abrogate or 
modify the emotions and resolves which the circum- 
stances of the preceding day had suggested ; nay, more, 



CELIBACY. 109 

the antithetical emotions thus created are always pro- 
portionally strong to those which they supplant. Hence 
vows assumed by any person under extraordinary men- 
tal excitement, will be repudiated when he is under 
extraordinary mental depression ; and obligations as- 
sumed under either of these conditions of mind, will 
be found inconsistent with the ordinary obligations of 
life, when that usual current of thought and emotion 
shall set in, which always flows in harmony with human 
reason, philosophy and happiness, and the regular course 
of things. If when this condition shall supervene ; if 
when hope shall succeed to despair, and reason and re- 
flection to impulse and fanaticism, and when all the 
passions and powers of our nature shall resume their 
natural operation — if then, we shall have placed our- 
selves by any mistake, however innocently committed, 
in a situation where we cannot respond to the demands 
of our nature, we will find that we have doomed our- 
selves to perpetual misery. 

Nor will any degree of purity or sanctity of motive 
arrest the evils of mistaken conduct. Nature is inex- 
orable ; she inflicts punishment on the violators of her 
laws without regard to the motives by which they have 
been actuated. She admits no apology ; she knows no 
forgiveness. Neither tears nor penitence can mitigate 
her vengeance ; neither pleas of conscientious motives, 
nor of ignorance of her ordinations, can soften the 
rigor of her justice. Although the desire of perfection 
is a natural and noble one, yet she has established laws 
by which alone it is to be obtained, and punishes the 
aggressors of them with deformity and imbecility. 

These laws are intelligible. Human perfection clearly 
10 



110 MONASTIC VOW OF 

comprehends the perfect development of all the physical, 
mental and moral powers of man. Exercise is the only 
means by which these faculties can be developed. The 
system of exercise adapted to the attainment of this 
end must embrace a judicious employment of every 
acuity belonging to the human organism ; allowing 
none to depreciate by indolence ; none to become ener- 
vated by incessant or overstrained exertion ; but to 
maintain all in that natural and reasonable condition in 
which, while they are alternately relieved they are mu- 
tually strengthened. By the discipline of such a sys- 
tem of exercise knowledge will gradually become the 
foundation of reason, judgment the guide of fancy, 
conscience the controller of the passions, the vital or- 
gains the recuperator of the physical and mental facul- 
ties ; a healthy reciprocity and modifying action will be 
maintained between all the powers, and that equili- 
brium engendered which is peace ; that condensation 
which is energy ; and that perfection which is essential 
to genius. 

The monastic vow of perpetual celibacy is clearly un- 
favorable to this general exercise of the powers of hu- 
man nature. It permits the exercise of only a limited 
number of these powers, and thereby obtrudes an insu- 
perable obstacle to the full development of the human 
character. It stimulates those which it cultivates to 
incessant activity, and thereby distorts and deforms their 
organisms by an abnormal development. It fetters in 
inactivity the bulk of the human faculties, and thereby 
lessens the number and variety of the natural sources 
of the pleasures of life. It reduces activity in the 
vital system, and thereby saps the fundamenta' trength 



CELIBACY. Ill 

of the whole organization, engendering those physical 
and moral diseases, which render life joyless, and death 
often the only remedy. It prohibits the exercise of 
those faculties by which alone the design of the human 
organism can be accomplished, and permits but a few of 
them to be exercised in order to attain the highest 
degree of perfection. It would dry up the springs of a 
river, in order to increase the volume of its current ; it 
would weaken the foundation of an edifice, in order to 
protect it against the shocks of earthquakes. But wheth- 
er these ecclesiastical absurdities are more insane than 
idiotical, we respectfully submit to the acumen of the 
(Ecumenical Council, whenever it shall resume its 
session at Rome. 

The monastic vow of celibacy, is as weak in its funda- 
mental principles, as it is absurd in its discipline. It is 
founded on the ascetic delusion, that the sensual passions 
are evils ; and that human perfection and happiness 
consist in the attainment of a passive state of mind, un- 
troubled by desire, thought or action. But this is a 
Brahminical absurdity, rusted to its core by tha abra- 
sion of ages. Fven if the propensities were evils, yet 
wisdom would teach us that as they are a result of our 
organism, they should be regulated ; especially if by a 
judicious regulation, they can be made to administer to 
the pleasures of existence. But they are not evils ; on 
the contrary, they are unmeasurable benefits. If they 
are ever tormentors, it is when prudence has not regu- 
lated their gratification, or when abuse has made their 
cravings unnatural. If they are ever sources of dis- 
ease, it is when they are exercised in violation of the 
laws of human nature. If they ever become impotent 



112 MONASTIC VOW OF 

in the production of pleasure, it is when their possess- 
ors have become gluttons, sots, debauchees, misers, or 
some similar compound of human depravity. But 
when the animal passions are refined by knowledge, 
chastened by virtue, directed by reason, governed by 
conscience, and exercised with a considerate regard to 
the integrity of the other powers, they become sources 
of pleasure and vigor, incentives to industry and enter- 
prise, and eminently contribute towards the advance- 
ment of the perfection and happiness of our being. 

Another fundamental error of the vow of celibacy, 
is the delusion that man may by means of solitude and 
resolution arrest the natural promptings of the propen- 
sities. The propensities are constituted by nature 
essential portions of our being ; and accordingly we 
must carry them with us into whatever solitude we may 
retire ; aud as their emotions are naturally irrepres- 
sible, their powers must be felt under whatever obliga- 
tion we may assume. Vows, resolutions and solitude 
are as incapable of arresting the progress of the pas- 
sions, as they are of stopping the pulsations of the 
heart. Amid the deepest silence and solitude they will 
still yearn for expression, and yearn the more the 
deeper is the stillness. Amid the bustle and tumult of 
the world they are excited by innumerable different 
objects; their attention is divided among a variety of 
attractions ; and each finds its appropriate gratification 
constantly offered to its taste. But in solitude there is 
every thing to concentrate, and nothing to divide their 
power ; every thing to inflame, and nothing to appease 
their appetites ; and consequently, under such circum- 
stances, their powers must be the most ungovernable, 



CELIBACY. 113 

and the torments of their craving the most unsupport- 
able. 

The foregoing observations were made on the pre- 
sumption, that the vow of perpetual chastity was as- 
sumed by the Catholic orders with sincere intentions of 
conforming to its requirements ; but this was hot always 
the case. Whatever sincerity or sanctity may have 
mingled, in some cases, with the motives that prompted 
its assumption, neither monks nor nuns, nor priests, nor 
bishops, nor popes, have in general furnished a reason- 
able amount of evidence in favor of their chastity. 

The natural and efficient regulator of the animal 
passions is marriage. The conjugal union, judiciously 
formed, is invaluable to man, but almost indispens- 
able to woman. Her organization preeminently qual- 
ifies her for its conditions and relations. The sen- 
sitiveness peculiar to her nervous system, obliges her to 
shrink from the rude battle of public life ; her weakness 
instructs her in the importance of placing herself under 
the guardianship of the more muscular power of man, 
which is noblest employed when it best protects the 
weak ; and her characteristic instincts and capacities 
lead her to seek her chief employment and happiness 
in the modest retirement of domestic life, where she 
finds the temple of which she alone is priestess ; the 
idols which excite her purest devotion ; the altars on 
which she lavishes her choicest gifts ; and where, in ad- 
ministering her sacred profession, in dispensing instruc- 
tion to her children, care to her household, and conso- 
lation to the sick and dying, her true dignity and 
beauty acquires the deepest enchantment. "Whatever 
the mental and personal charms of a female may be, 
10* 



114 MONASTIC VOW OF 

the true excellence of her character can never be seen 
or appreciated, except in the practice of the amiable 
virtues which constitute the wife and the mother. This, 
woman knows ; this she feels ; and to obtain this end 
the rights of her nature, and the interests of society, 
concur in authorizing her to adopt every available 
means. Yet, notwithstanding these plain facts, the Cath- 
olic Church has the unpardonable presumption to pro- 
nounce a curse on her, if she should prefer a union so 
essential to her happiness and usefulness to a state of 
perpetual virginity. Every time her common sense 
teaches her to say that marriage is preferable to virgin- 
ity, this religious monster, in the name of the Holy Trin- 
ity and all the saints and angels, answers " Let her be 
accursed." Every time her nature prompts her to say, 
that, to be joined in marriage is more blessed than to 
remain in a state of virginity, this monster in horror at 
the profane and unorthodox expressions, responds, "Let 
her be accursed." Hear it from the lips of the holy 
mother herself: 

l( Whosoever shall say, that the church could not in- 
stitute impediments annulling marriage, or that in 
instituting them she has erred, let him be acursed." 

" Whosoever shall say, that the marriage state is 
preferable to a state of virginity, or celibacy, or that it 
is not more blessed to remain in a state of virginity or 
celibacy, than to be joined in matrimony, let him be 
accursed." 

11 Whosoever shall affirm, that matrimonial causes do 
not belong to the ecclesiastical judges, let him be ac- 
cursed." ( Canon of the Council of Trent ). 

Atrocious as is this decree, it expresses not the full 



CELIBACY. 115 

measure of Catholic arrogance. For while with pal- 
pable inconsistency, the church solemnizes among Cath- 
olics the rites which she anathematizes them for prefer- 
ing, she declares that all those whose marriage cere- 
monies have not been celebrated according to her 
fantastic requirements, are living in a, state of " shame- 
ful concubinage." It would seem that by consummat- 
ing the union which she holds men and women accursed 
for desiring, she incurs on her own soul the curse she 
pronounces on others. She requires no foe for her mat- 
rimonial services, but accepts marriage presents, which 
may perhaps have softened her malignity to this product 
of civilization with regard to Catholics ; but non-Cath- 
olics who do not conciliate her holy aversion to it by 
such presents, she pronounces them profligates, their 
wives prostitutes, and their children bastards. Hear 
this from the lips of Pope Pius IX. 

" Marriage cannot be given, unless there be, one and 
at the same time a sacrement, consequently that any 
ether union between man and woman among Christians, 
made in virtue of what civil law soever, is nothing else 
than a shameful and miserable concubinage, so often 
condemned by the church.' 1 (Allocution on the State 
of Affairs in New Grenada ). 

So in the j udgment of the present Pope, the non-Cath- 
olics in the United States consist of strumpets and 
bastards. According to the principles of the Catholic 
Church, thus officially enunciated, every person, the 
marriage rites of whose parents have not been per- 
formed by a Catholic priest, is an illegitimate offspring 
divested of all legal right to inherit property of his 
parents. If the church shall ever gain in America the 



116 MONASTIC VOW OF 

numerical strength for which she is striving, what will 
he the consequence to non-Catholics ? Will she declare 
them legitimate, or respect their property titles ? Have 
not her priests made this land ring with the assertion, 
that Infidels and Protestants have no right where Cath- 
olicism is triumphant. 

But who is she that has the audacity to proclaim such 
principles ? A church, which has been dripping with 
the blood of innocence for ages, yet is thirsting for more. 
■ Who are they that prate about chastity? A body of 
the most corrupt, unprincipled, and licentious priests 
that ever disgraced the name of religion. The cold 
dissoluteness of the Catholic orders is not only undeni- 
able, but it is even frightful. Had history been silent, 
and the real conduct of Catholic priests, and the inte- 
rior of Catholic nunneries remained a profound secret, 
yet, an ordinary knowledge of human nature would 
have warranted the suspicion that the priests were 
not models of chastity, nor the nunneries asylums of 
innocence, f But history has not been silent; she has 
spoken distinctly, and spoken often. A nun escaped 
from her prison-house, or a priest not yet steeled by 
hypocrisy to all the pleadings of virtue, or who was 
disgusted beyond endurance at the corruption that fes- 
ters in the heart of the Catholic Church, has furnished 
history with startling records, and raised the sacred 
veil, that the superstitious might behold the horrible 
compound of duplicity, lust, and murder which secretly 
pollutes the interior of the institutions which they rev- 
erence. But these fitful revelations, although appeal- 
ing to the noblest sympathies of mankind, have seldom 
produced an effect equal to the exigency. Like bursts 



CELIBACY. 117 

of unexpected thunder, they have startled for a moment, 
but soon rumbled into silence and forgetfulness. 

Such is the general infatuation, that people seldom 
question that around which the sanctions of religion 
are thrown, and when they do the doubt is soon obliter- 
ated. ( They will reverently bow to a priest without 
thinking it is possible that under the guise of his chaste 
and holy profession, avarice, lust and murder may reign 
supreme. They will heedlessly pass a nunnery without 
thinking how many broken hearts may there be hope- 
lessly imprisoned ; how many gifted and accomplished 
females may there be pining in anguish and despair, 
who, while they sought an abode of unsullied chastity, 
foundthemselves entrapped in a den of infamy, to be 
profaned by holy confessors \J But reluctantly as char- 
ity would believe these statements, they are substanti- 
ated beyond the possibility of doubt or denial, by the 
records of Catholic authority of the highest order. 

An insight into the mysteries of Catholicism, and the 
mode by which priests conceal from publicity their acts 
of seduction and adultery, may be learned from the 
following extract from Hogan's "Auricular Confession." 
" The secular orders," says he, " are composed chiefly 
of parish priests and their curates, whose duty it is to 
hear their parishioners. The orders of regulars are com- 
posed of friars, who are subdivided into several minor 
orders, and who have no particular duties to dis- 
charge, unless especially deputed to do so by the bishop, 
or the deputy of the diocese into which they may be 
divided. It is so managed by the secular priests, that 
whenever they fail in seducing their penitents, and are 
detected by them that one of those friars shall immedi- 



118 MONASTIC VOW OF 

ately be at hand to hear the confessions of all such 
females, and forgive their sins, on condition that they 
shall never reveal to moral being the thoughtless pecca- 
dillos of their parish priest, who for the moment forgot 
himself, and whose tears of penitence now moisten the 
ground on which he walks." ( Auric. Confess, vol. ii. 
p. 168 ). 

The adaptation of the confessional to prepare the way 
for seduction and adultery may be comprehended by 
the following extract from the ' Synopsis of Popery" by 
the same author. " Do any of these families," asks he, 
" know the questions which a priest puts to their fam- 
ilies at the confessional? Do husbands know the ques- 
tions which priests put to their wives at the confession ? 
.... Fathers, mothers, guardians and husbands fancy 
to yourself the most indelicate, immodest, libidinous 
questions which the most immoral and profligate mind 
can conceive, — fancy those ideas put into plain lan- 
guage, and that by way of questions and answers, and 
you will then have a faint conception of the conversa- 
tion which takes place between a priest and your 
hitherto pure daughter. If after two or three examina- 
tions, in that sacred tribunal, they still continue vir- 
tuous, they are rare examples." ( Synopsis, p. 170, 
171). 

While the Catholic Church imposes on the priests and 
monks the vow of celibacy, it accords them the priv- 
ilege of acting licentiously with impunity. In the life 
of Bishop Scipio de Eicci, written by an eminent Cath- 
olic, the practice of the church in allowing bishops and 
priests to keep concubines, while it forbids them to 
marry under pain of excommunication, is asserted and 



CELIBACY. 119 

defended. The Council of Toledo passed a canon for- 
bidding priests to keep more than one concubine in 
public. William Hogan asserts that every priest keeps 
a concubine, and every teacher in a school attached to 
a Catholic nunnery, has been seduced by her teacher. 
Chamancis says: " The adultery, obscenity and impiety 
of the priests are beyond description. St. Chrysostom 
thinks the number of them that will be saved, bears a 
very small proportion to those who will be damned. 
Cardinal CoDpaggio asserts that " the priest who marries 
commits a more grievous sin than if he kept many con- 
cubines." Pope Paul protected houses of ill-fame, and 
acquired great riches by selling them licenses. The 
Council of Augsburg ordered that all suspected females 
should be driven by whips from the dwellings of the 
clergy, and have their hair cut off. A monk relates 
that he once made a contract with the Devil that if he 
would cease to fill his mind with lascivious ideas, he 
would omit some prayers to the saints whose pictures 
decorated the walls of his cloister, but upon communi- 
cating the substance of the agreement to the bishop, he 
was informed by him, that " rather than abstain from 
adoring Christ and mother in their holy images it would 
be better to enter every brothel and visit every pros- 
titute in the city." Eichard of England replied to 
Fulk Nuelly, the legate of Pope Innocent III., commis- 
sioned to blow the trumpet of another crusade : " You 
advise me to dismiss my three daughters, Pride, Av- 
arice and Incontinence. I bequeath them to the most 
deserving : my pride to the Knights Templars ; my av- 
arice to the monks of Ciste ; and, my incontinence to 
the prelates." Pope John XXIII. was deposed by the 



120 MONASTIC VOW OF 

Council of Constance for having committed seventy 
different sorts of crimes, among the number of which 
was illicit commerce with three hundred nuns. The 
Trappists, a menkish order of highway robbers, were 
constantly employed in abducting females, confining 
them in their monastery, and perpetrating the most 
atrocious rapes./ At the Council of Canterbury King 
Edgar declared that the houses of the clergy were 
nothing but brothels. Petrarch laments over the fact 
that the clergy at the papal court were shamefully 
licentious. Cardinals lived openly with their concu- 
bines ; and it became a question of etiquette whether a 
bishop's concubine should not, at the court of His Holi- 
ness, precede other ladies. Llorente, chief secretary 
of the Spanish Inquisition in 1789, relates that the in- 
quisitors having granted permission to the females of a 
certain locality to denounce their guilty confessors, the 
number of priests denounced was so great that thirty 
secretaries were employed for sixty days in taking down 
depositions, and that the profligacy of the clergy so far 
exceeded all calculation that it was concluded to sus- 
pend investigation, and to destroy the records of the 
proceedings. The extent and depth of clerical deprav- 
ity can never be divulged by those who know it, 
for St. Bernard asserts that " Bishops and priests com- 
mit acts in private which it would be scandalous to ex- 
press." 

« From nunneries governed and visited by priests of 
such a character, what is the logical inference ? Cha- 
mancis, an unimpeachable Catholic authority, answers 
this question when he says : " To veil a woman in these 
convents is synonymous to prostituting her." ' The sev- 



CELIBACY. 121 

enth General Council of Nice prohibited the erection of 
double convents for the accommodation of both sexes ; 
but the prohibition was not regarded. < In Europe 
every nunnery has attached to it a foundling asylum; 
in the United States, a grave-yard.; Llorente relates a 
curious account of Aquida, an abbess of a Carmelite 
nunnery at Liemo. It appears that this female had, on 
several occasions, professed to have become pregnant 
with stones, and to have retired for the purpose of giv- 
ing them birth. She had often exhibited her miracu- 
lous progeny to the credulous, and pretended to be 
enabled, by their divine nature, to cure diseases with 
them. Her success in working miracles by them pro- 
cured for her the reputation of a saint. But unfortun- 
ate for her eventual canonization, a rumor became cur- 
rent that instead of having given birth to stones, she 
had given birth to children, and strangled them ; and 
that she had obliged the holy nuns under her super- 
vision to practise the same iniquity. The informant, 
an inmate of the nunnery, pointed out the place where 
the murdered babes were buried ; and subsequent exca- 
vation revealed the horrible fact, that half the tale of 
blood had not been told. 

The following additional facts, related by William 
Hogan, as having transpired under his personal cogniz- 
ance, afford further confirmative proof of the general 
character of priests and nuns, and that it remains as it 
has always been, in all countries, and at all periods of 
civilization : 

" The Roman Catholics of Albany," says he, " had, 
about three years previous to my coming among them, 
three Irish priests anrong then, occasion^ preaching, 



122 MONASTIC VOW OF 

but always hearing confessions As soon as I 

got settled in Albany I bad, of course, to attend to the 
duty of auricular confession, and in less than two 
months found that the priests, during the time they 
were there, were the fathers of between sixty and one 
hundred children, besides having debauched many who 
had left the place previous to their confinement." (Au- 
ricular Confession, p. 46). 

"A short time previous to my coming to this coun- 
try, and soon after my being installed as confessor in 
the Romish Church, I became intimately acquainted 
with a family of great respectability. This family con- 
sisted of a widowed father and two daughters, and never 
in my life have I met with more interesting young 

ladies than the daughters were In less than 

two months after my first visit to this family, at their 
peaceful and respectable breakfast table, I observed the 
chair which had been usually occupied by the elder of 
the two ladies occupied by the younger, and that of the 
latter to be vacant. I inquired the cause, and was in- 
formed by the father that he had just accompanied her 
to the coach, which had left that morning for Dublin, 
and that she went on a visit to the Rev. B. K. It seems 
that both of the daughters of whom I have spoken went 
to the school attached to the nunnery of the city of 

. The confessor whose duty it was to hear the 

duty of the pupils of the institute, was one Rev. B. K., 
a friar of the Franciscan order, who, as soon as his 
plans were properly laid, and circumstances rendered 
them ripe for execution, seduced the elder lady ;. and 
finding the fact could no longer be concealed, arranged 
matters with a Dublin friend She was con- 
fined at the house of his friend, and her illicit offspring 
given to the managers of the foundling hospital in 

Dublin No sooner was this elder lady provided 

for, than this incarnate demon, B. K., commenced the 
seduction of the younger lady. He succeeded, and 
ruined her too. But there was no difficulty in provid- 



CELIBACY. 123 

ing for them. They both became nuns I saw 

them in the convent at Mount Benedict. They were 
great favorites of Bishop Fenton. They were spoken 
of by some of the females of Boston as models of 
piety." (Auricular Confession, p. 100-106). 

" Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia, ... a Ro- 
man Catholic priest by the name of 0. S. called on me, 
and showed me letters of recommendation which he 
had from Bishop T., of Ireland, and countersigned by 
the Roman Catholic bishop of New York, to Bishop 

England, of South Carolina He arrived at 

Charleston, and was well received by Bishop England. 
There lived in the parish to which this reverend con- 
fessor was appointed, a gentleman of respectability and 
wealth. Bishop England supplied this new missionary 
with letters of strong recommendation to this gentle- 
man, advising him to place his children under his 
charge, assuring him they would be brought up in the 

fear of God and love of religion The Rev. 

Popish wretch seduced the eldest daughter of his bene- 
factor-, and the father becoming aware of the fact, 
armed himself with a case of pistols, and determined to 
shoot the seducer. But there was in the house a good 
Catholic sevant [ a spy ] who advised the seducer to 
fly. He soon arrived in Charleston ; the right reverend 
bishop understood his case, advised him to go to confes- 
sion, and absolved him from his sins ; . . . . sent him 

on his way to New York His victim after a 

little time, having given birth to a fine boy, goes to 
confession herself, and sends the child of sin to the Sis- 
ters of Charity residing in — , to be taken care of 

as a nullius filius. As soon as the child was able to 
walk a Roman Catholic lady adopted it as her own. 
The real mother of the child soon removed to the city 

of , told the whole transaction to the Roman 

Catholic bishop of , who knowing that she had 

a handsome property, introduced her to a highly res- 
pectable Protestant gentleman, who soon married her. 
He ( the bishop ) soon after introduced the gentleman 



124 MONASTIC VOW OF 

to the Sisters of Charity who had provided for the illicit 
offspring of the priest, concealing its parentage, and 
representing it as having no father living. The gentle- 
man was pleased with the boy, and the holy bishop 
finally prevailed on him and his wife to adopt it as his 
own." (Auric. Confess, p. 111-115). 

"When quite young and just emerging from child- 
hood, I became acquainted with a Protestant family, re- 
siding in the neighborhood of my birthplace. It con- 
sisted of a mother (a widow), and three interesting 

children, two sons and one daughter In the 

course of time the sons grew up, and their guardian in 
compliance with their wishes, and to gratify their am- 
bition, procured them commissions in the army 

As soon as the sons left to join their respective regi- 
ments, which were then on the Continent, the mother 

and daughter were much alone There was then 

in the neighborhood only twenty miles from this family, 
a nunnery of the order of Jesuits. To this nunnery was 
attached a school superintended by the nuns of that 

order The mother yielded, in this case, to the 

malign influence of fashion ; . . . . sent her beautiful 
daughter, her earthly treasure, to the school of these 
nuns. . , . . Soon after the daughter was sent to school, 
I entered the college of Manooth as a theological stu- 
dent, and in due time was ordained a Catholic priest. 

An interval of some years passed There was a 

large party given, at which among others I happened to 
be present; and there meeting with my friends and 
interchanging the usual courtesies on such occasions, 
she sportingly, as I then imagined, asked me whether I 
would preach her reception sermon, as she intended 

becoming a nun and taking the veil I heard no 

more of the affair until about two months, when I re- 
ceived a note from her designating the chapel in which 

she expected my services On the reception of 

my friend's note a cold chill crept over me, I antici- 
pated and trembled, and felt there must be foul play. . 
. . . Having no connection with the convent in which 



CELIBACY, 125 

she was immured, I did not see her for three months 
following. At the expiration of that time one of the 

lay sisters delivered me a note I found my 

young friend wished to see me on something important. 
I of course lost no time in calling on her, and being a 
priest, I was immediately admitted ; but never have I 
forgotten, never can I forget, the melancholy picture of 
lost beauty and fallen humanity which met my aston- 
ished gaze in the person of my once beautiful and vir- 
tuous friend 'I sent for you, my friend, to 

see you once before my death I am in the 

family- way and must die.' " 

He then proceeds to relate, that in the course of a 
conversation which ensued he learned from the nun 
that she had been seduced by her confessor, (which fact 
precluded any appeal or redress), and that the lady ab- 
bess had proposed to procure an abortion, but that an 
inmate had informed her that the medicine which the 
lady abbess would give would contain poison. He 
promised to renew his visit within a few days ; he did 
so, but the foul deed was done. 

Fiends ! Monsters ! Does not the blood curdle in 
every vein at such recitals ? Does not man and woman 
blush at their dishonored nature ? Is there a God that 
can allow the use of his name to sanction such execrable 
depravity ; that can look with indifference on women 
avowing chastity in his name in order to allure the 
purest of their sex to destruction ; or that can be in- 
sensible to the imprecations of injured innocence, pro- 
faned in holy houses? Is God a fiction, or divine 
retribution a dream ? No ! While a thunderbolt leaves 
a monastery or a nunnery in existence, lightning has no 

avenging power ! While either of them exists man 
11* 



126 MONASTIC VOW OF 

may well doubt the existence of retributive justice in 
human affairs. 

But it may be said, that God has delegated to society 
the power to punish offences committed against its moral 
interests, and therefore does not himself interfere in the 
matter. But does society exercise its authority in the 
matter any more visibly than deity ? Society enacts laws 
and prescribes penalties respecting murder, rape, broth- 
els, false imprisonment, and irregular interments. She 
also investigates all alleged infractions of these laws, 
except when they involve the honor of monastic insti- 
tutions. But why are these dens exempted from the 
common law of the land ? Why are they allowed to 
bar their doors against the authority which all others 
must respect? "Why are they allowed to organize 
within a government an independent government, nul- 
lifying its jurisdiction over them? Why are not the 
interior of monastic institutions constantly and thor- 
oughly inspected, and the authority of the common law 
maintained over them? Is it because they are too 
pious to violate the law of the land ? If this were so, 
it would do them no harm, but much good, to have the 
fact week after week attested by an investigating com- 
mittee composed of their opponents. But is not the 
contrary the fact ? Do they not deprive their inmates 
of personal liberty ? Do they not imprison them m 
dungeons ? Do they not punish them ? Do they not 
inflict on them barbarous chastisements? Are they not 
sacerdotal brothels? Has not every age and country 
given its testimony to show that kidnapped men and 
women have been imprisoned for life in their cells ; 
that there nuns have been poisoned, abortions procured, 



CELIBACY. 127 

babes murdered, women outraged by priests, and every 
law, human or divine violated with impunity ? 

Are these sensational declamations ? Would for the 
credit of human nature they were. No ! They are 
the true records of monastic history, alleged by kings 
and statesmen, proved before councils, and acknowledged 
by monks, nuns, priests, pishops, and popes. With 
such an array of evidence before society, why does it 
allow institutions among it where every crime may. be 
committed secretly, and with impunity ? Why do 
not grand juries, who visit other jails, penitentiaries, 
and asylums, inspect also the more secret and sus- 
picious nunneries ? 

We have now described the nature and consequences 
of the monastic vow of celibacy. This obligation is 
opposed to the nature, and defeats the object of the hu- 
man organism. It extinguishes conjugal, filial, and 
parental affection. It severs the ties that bind the in- 
terests of society together. It injures both the present 
and the future, by abrogating their mutual connection. 
It strikes at the root of national greatness, by arresting 
the tide of population. It degrades the dignity of the 
community, by increasing the number of illegitimate 
children. It wars against marriage, the noblest incen- 
tive to social refinement and civilization ; the basis of 
woman's hope and happiness; the impulse and gratifi- 
cation of her pride of family, love of parental control, 
and desire to live in posterity. It anathematizes wo- 
man's purest aspirations, and man's holiest ties. It 
converts the ardor of chastity into snares for its seduc- 
tion. It sanctifies prostitution and adultery. It vio- 
lates the law of the land. It erects in the most magni- 



128 MONASTIC VOW OF CELIBACY. 

ficent parts of a city its spacious brothels, with massive 
walls, secret doors, false floors, guarded windows, grated 
cloisters, inaccessible to the inspection of law, but acces- 
sible at all hours of night or day by priests. Within 
these walls it allures beauty, virtue, and talent, and 
while pretending to fit them for the society of infinite 
purity, betrays them into the power of unprincipled 
priests, and imprisons them in eternal seclusion, where 
no groan can meet the public ear, where they can never 
tell the story of their wrong, nor appeal to a heart for 
sympathy, nor to a law for redress. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Monastic Vow of Unconditional Obedience. 

Another vow which was universally assumed by the 
religious orders, was the vow of uncouditional obe- 
dience. By the obligation of this vow the members of 
the convents were subjected to the absolute authority 
of the superiors ; the superiors to the absolute au- 
thority of the generals ; the generals to the absolute 
authority of the pope. The authority of these holy 
officials strongly resembled that of the oriental despot, 
who, on being informed by his general that it was im- 
possible to build the bridge over the river, as he had 
ordered, replied: "I inquired not of thee whether it 
was impossible or not ; I commanded thee to build it ; 
if thou failest thou shalt be strangled." Accordingly, 
at the mandate of a superior a subordinate was obliged 
to go on any errand, for any purpose, criminal or not, 
to depart on any mission, to perform any work, to un- 
dertake any enterprise, or to occupy any station that he 
required • of him. The superior's decision was final, 
and from it there was no appeal. The Jesuit's general 
was empowered to inflict and remit punishment at op- 
tion, and to expel any member of the order without 
the form of charge or trial. It mattered not whether 
the task assigned the recluse exceeded, or not, his mental 
or physical capacity, he was bound to obey the order 
immediately, and fully ; to hesitate, or seem to hesitate 
was a crime, and by the penal code of some of the 



130 MONASTIC VOW OF 

monasteries punished by the infliction of one hundred 
]ashes. 

But to reduce a human being to such an absolute servi- 
tude was no easy task. To transform an active being 
into a spiritless automaton ; a sensitive being into a 
senseless machine ; a rational being into an irrational 
brute, was not the work of a moment, but of years and 
discipline. In order to subdue and habituate the will 
to implicit and mechanical obedience, recourse had to 
be had to penance, to trials, to all that could stifle 
doubt and inquiry, debilitate the power of resistance, 
and degrade conscious dignity in the dust. The most 
menial services, the most loathsome, disgusting, and 
absurd offices were consequently asssigned to the proba- 
tionists. They were required to suck the. putrid sores 
of invalids, to remove enormous rocks, to walk un- 
flinchingly into fiery furnaces, to cast their infants into 
ponds of water, to plant staffs in the ground and to 
water them until they should grow. They were never 
allowed to be alone , two were always to be together ; 
the one a constant and conscious spy on the emotions 
of the other. The faithful son who could harden him- 
self into a cold, cruel, and remorseless statue, was com- 
mended for his attainments in piety ; but the unfaith- 
ful son who could not but betray some emotion, or re- 
maining consciousness of the independence of his na- 
ture, in defiance of his circumspection, was doomed to 
suffer the torments of an excruciating penance. 

The vow of solitude had stifled the social instincts ; 
the vow of silence had paralyzed the powers of speech, 
and sealed up the lips of wisdom, knowledge and elo- 
quence ; ihe vow of contemplation had subjugated the 



UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 131 

intellectual faculties to the domination of fancy, and 
the bewilderments of ignorance ; the vow of poverty 
had shackled the faculties of improvement and enter- 
prise ; the vow of celibacy had extinguished connubial 
and parental affection ; and now the vow of uncondi- 
tional obedience, by subjugating reason, conscience, and 
the executive powers to the absolute control of a supe- 
rior, had completed the monk's slavery in the ruin of 
every noble and valuable attribute of his nature. Atro- 
cious as were the other vows, the last exceeded the 
combined atrocity of them all. It consummated the 
destruction of his nature. It was the grave of his man- 
hood ; the tomb in which he buried himself alive. 
After its assumption his reason was not to guide him ; 
his knowledge was not to direct him ; his conscience 
was not to admonish him; but in defiance of them all, 
and even at the risk of his life, he was to tremble, and 
obey a spiritual despot. His perceptive faculties, his 
conscious independence, his love of liberty and justice, 
his sense of obligation and accountability, all the men- 
tal, moral, and physical powers which constitute his 
being, were by this vow, basely surrendered to an 
absolute lord, to whom he became a slave in mind and 
body, — and forever. 

The blind obedience which the pope demands to his 
despotic will, is antagonistical to the Jewish religion, to 
the Christian religion, and to Natural religion. It is a 
nullification of all religion ; an abrogation of the au- 
thority of the deity ; a usurpation of the throne of 
Heaven. The Jewish and the Christian religion require 
unconditional obedience to God alone. In their sacred 
books, the pope is nowhere mentioned, nor is any power 



132 MONASTIC VOW OF 

referred to analagous to what lie claims. Natural re- 
ligion prescribes reason and conscience as the supreme 
guide of man; and reason and conscience reject the 
papal authority as absurd and unjust. In the Hiero- 
phant of the Elysian mysteries, in the Apostolic Suc- 
cessor of Buddha, in the Grand Lama, in the Egyptian 
and Persian High Priest we may find something anal- 
agous to the claims of the Pope of Borne, but nowhere 
else. 

The unconditional obedience required by the pope is 
inconsistent with all ideas of merit and demerit in 
human conduct. If man acts not from the independ- 
ent suggestion of his. reason and conscience, but from 
the secret orders of another, he is no more deserving of 
commendation for uesful acts, than a locomotive is for 
its obedience to the will of an engineer. 

The unconditional obedience demanded by the pope 
is inconsistent with human accountability. It is an 
abrogation of all obligation, and all law. It assumes 
that the pope is above all authority ; accountable to 
none ; and that he is capable of nullifying all obliga- 
tions between man and man, between government and 
subjects, between mankind and their creator. It ob- 
trudes between man and his reason, and forbids him to 
listen to its voice. It obtrudes between man and his 
conscience, and forbids him to obey its dictates. It ob- 
trudes between man and his civil obligations, and for- 
bids him to obey the laws of his country. It leaves no 
sense of duty or obligation existing in the constitution 
of man. According to it, man is not accountable to 
reason, nor conscience, nor society, nor God, but to the 
pope alone. The pope is therefore " more than God," 



UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 133 

as one of his titles asserts ; and God is no God or an 
inferior one to him. 

The unconditional obedience enforced by the pope is 
subversive of the rights of the world. For one man, 
however good or great, to require the united intelli- 
gence of the human family to submit to his arbitrary 
dictation, is to deny their right to an independent 
will, reason, conscience, or principle of action, or 
the privilege of exercising the powers which they have 
inherited with their being. It is to declare that all 
men are abject slaves to the pope. It is to deny that 
any has a right above a brute that is bridled, har- 
nessed, or yoked, to be driven by the spurs and whips 
of its owner. In short, it is to crush all liberty and the 
rights of human nature. 

A claim of absolute authority is always absurd ; but 
the papal claim of absolute dominion over human con- 
science and reason, surpasses all absurdity recorded in 
the annals of tyranny and arrogance. Even were su- 
periors, generals, and popes as wise and virtuous as 
humanity permitted, yet such a degree of power en- 
trusted to them would be detrimental to the interests of 
society. Parents whose welfare and honor are so inti- 
mately interwoven with the welfare and honor of their 
children, often regret over the mistakes which they 
have committed in giving counsel. For a spiritual des- 
pot, whose nature has been religiously pruned of human 
sensibilities, whose mind has been contracted within the 
bigoted circle of spiritual ideas, whose interest is antag- 
onistical to those of his subjects, and who owns no ac- 
countability for the proper exercise of his functions, for 

such an inhuman monster to be entrusted with exclusive 
12 



134 MONASTIC VOW OF 

control over the reason, conscience, and interests of 
another, would as inevitably complete his arrogance 
and tyranny as it would the misery and slavery of his 
subordinate. Less than such a result could not be ex- 
pected from the best of superiors, generals, or monks. 
But when the past history of these holy men has 
shown that they have invariably labored for their self- 
aggrandizement, and that as a class, they have been 
ignorant, immoral, cruel and intriguing, such power, in 
the hands of such men, would not only extinguish all 
virtue in the breast of the governed, but render them 
instruments of the most flagitious purposes. When by 
means of an ecclesiastical despotism, learning was gov- 
erned by ignorance, wisdom by folly, virtue by vice, can 
we wonder that monks, superiors, generals and popes 
were the basest and most licentious of men ; that the 
convents were rife with prostitution and murder ; that 
the papal court was the most profligate in the world ; 
and that the most prosperous period of Catholicism was 
the darkest age of mankind. 

But the papal claim of absolute control over reason 
and conscience refutes itself. It suggests a strong pre- 
sumption that he is conscious that he can make no 
successful appeal to either reason or conscience. Had 
it been otherwise would he have denied their author- 
ity ? Were he confident that his pretensions are founded 
in truth, would he have prohibited investigation ? Is 
not reason the clearest guide to truth, conscience its 
most powerful advocate, investigation its most formid- 
able ally ? And had these noble principles been avail- 
able in supporting the pretension of the pope, would 
he have had the stupidity to denounce them ? 



UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE. 135 

If it is consistent with religion to make automata 
of human beings, slaves of men, a machine of the world ; 
to harness mankind in the gears of an ecclesiastical 
despot, that they may be driven under his lash whither- 
soever his pleasure or interest may require ; to obliter- 
ate the faculties that distinguish men from brutes ; to 
deny the existence of a God by abrogating his attributes, 
and blaspheme Omnipotence by the ridicule of assuming 
his prerogatives ; then the absolute, implicit, and un- 
hesitating obedience enjoined on the religious orders by 
the Catholic Church is in accordance with its spirit and 
design. But if religion is morality in its highest devel- 
opment, humanity in its purest character, and reason 
in its freest exercise, then is the papal despotism not 
only subversive of religion, but destructive of the rights 
of man, of the obligations of virtue, and dangerous to the 
liberty and interests of the world. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Pagan Origin of the Monastic Orders. — Concluding 

Remarks. 

We have shown in the previous chapters that the mo- 
nastic vows are in conflict, not only with the require- 
ments of moral goodness, but with the dictates of rea- 
son, the principles of personal improvement, and the 
interests and progress of society. "We have shown, 
also, that they were assumed not for the humble pur- 
pose of acquiring spiritual perfection, but for the am- 
bitious purpose of obtaining riches, power, and domin- 
ion. From these considerations, and from the fact that 
the monachal orders form an elementary part of the 
constitution of the Catholic Church, we have inferred 
that she is rather a political than a religious institution ; 
and that while politics form her nature and principles, 
religion is assumed as an ornament and disguise. 

We will now adduce a few facts tending to show that 
monkish orders originated, not from Christianity ; that 
they existed in pre-historic ages ; and that so far as 
they constitute the Catholic Church, she is a heathen, 
and not a Christian institution. 

It is well known that the Carmelite monks claim 
Elijah, the prophet, as their founder. Among the an- 
cient personages whom they assert belonged to their 
order, they enumerate Pythagoras, the Gallic Druids, 
all the prophets and holy men mentioned in the Old 
and New Testament, the Apostles, the Essenes, and the 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 137 

ancient hermits, Although, amid the wrangling of the 
monastic orders for preeminence, this claim has rigor- 
ously been contested, yet Pope Benedict III. allowed 
the Carmelites to erect in the Vatican the statue of 
Elijah as the founder of their order. This permission, 
so far as the concession of the infallible father is author- 
ity, places the antiquity of the monachal order remotely 
beyond that of Christianity ; acknowledges its institu- 
tion to have originated from Judaism ; and grants that 
its rules and principles were adopted by ancient Pagan 
fraternities. 

That identical institutions have flourished in Asia 
from the remotest historical periods, admits not of a 
question. The present Sufism of Arabia is but a modi- 
fied form of an ancient system of pantheistical mysti- 
cism, which taught that through the observance of ascetic 
practices the animal passions could be destroyed, the 
soul purified and assimilated to God, and a beatific state 
attained whose tranquility nothing could disturb. The 
Gymnosophists, the naked philosophers of India, were 
an order of monks, who practised the most excruciat- 
ing penance ; and who, in their eagerness to become 
pure, sometimes burnt themselves alive. The God Fo, 
born in Cashmere B. C. 1027, the author of the Bram- 
inical religion, strenuously advocated monachal insti- 
tutions. The different orders of the monks and her- 
mits which originated from his allegorical and mystical 
teaching, assumed the vows of unconditional obedience 
and absolute poverty. The monks resided in monas- 
teries, and the hermits in deserts. They both practised 
the most rigorous penance, professed to aspire after ab- 
solute purity, but in their conduct and principles they 
12* 



138 PAGAN OEIGIN OF THE 

were grovelling, intriguing, profligate and ambitious. 
Buddha, born B. C. 1029, two years after Fo, found- 
ed the monastic order of the Buddhists. His con- 
vents were governed by superiors who were subject to 
the absolute authority of the patriarch, or, as he was 
officially styled, the Apostolic Successor. The func- 
tions and authority of the Buddhistic superiors were 
similar to those of the Catholic orders ; and the preten- 
sions and dignity of the patriarch were one and the 
same with those of the Pope of Rome. The monks 
lived in monasteries, assumed the vows of obedience, 
poverty and celibacy, and admitted virgins to social in- 
tercourse. Jeseus Christna, born B. C. 3,500, the incar- 
nate redeemer of the Hindoos, whose birth, life, aud 
miracles resemble those of Jesus Christ, (see "Bible in 
India,") alludes in his discourses to monks and her- 
mits as being at his time ancient, flourishing and ven- 
erated orders. The Hindoo and Mohammedan Fakirs 
are classes of monks who vow obedience, poverty and 
celibacy, retire from the world, pass their time in silent 
contemplation, and acquire the veneration of the pop- 
ulace by the practice of absurd and cruel penance. 
The Essenes, who flourished in Egypt and Palestine be- 
fore the Christian era, were an organization of monks 
who derived their theological principles from the God 
Theuth, the founder of the Egyptian religious ceremonies. 

From the above enumerated facts the conclusion is 
irresistable, that the Catholic monastic orders are neither 
of Christian origin, nor inconsistent with the doctrines 
and worship of Paganism. 

A Romish missionary who visited China, observing 
the similarity which subsisted between the Chinese and 



MONASTIC ORDERS. 139 

the Catholic religion, declared that the devil must have 
preceded him, and converted the nation to Christianity, 
in order to cheat the church out of the credit of the 
enterprise. A more learned but less pious authority 
concluded from the same analogy, that Catholicism did 
not convert Paganism, but that Paganism converted 
Catholicism. 

We will now conclude our examination of the Cath- 
olic monastic orders, with a few general remarks. 

The monastic vows are not only a bold abnegation of 
the authority of reason and conscience, but a crafty de- 
vice to delude the credulous, and secretly to acquire 
riches, power and influence. Although they were as- 
sumed by the monks as perpetual obligations, yet they 
were evaded, modified, or abrogated as interest and pol- 
icy suggested. The mendicant orders, which assumed 
the vow of perpetual and absolute poverty, artfully la- 
bored to amass fortunes; and soon betrayed a secret 
design of acquiring hierachal importance and suprem- 
acy. The Franciscans, who solemnly obligated them- 
selves to remain forever poor, incessantly grasped after 
riches. "When they had built nunneries, convents, and 
became the proprietors of extensive domains, they abro- 
gated their vow of perpetual poverty, lest it should in- 
validate their title to vast possessions which they held. 
"With equal duplicity and ambition, they assumed, upon 
their first organization, a vow of perpetual ignorance; 
abjuring the acquisition of any intellectual accomplish- 
ment, and consecrating themselves strict] y to the 
preaching of the gospel. But becoming enchanted with 
the magnificence of the papal crown, and wishing to 
wield its immense power and lucrative patronage in be- 



140 PAGAN ORIGIN GF THE 

half of their order, and perceiving that literary ac- 
quirements would facilitate the accomplishment of this 
object, they annulled their vow of perpetual ignorance, 
and began to devote themselves to the acquisition of 
some degree of profane erudition. Having acquired 
immense wealth and popularity, and removed by art or 
bribery every obstacle to the success of their ambition, 
they placed on the apostolic throne, from their own 
order, Nicholas V., Alexander V. r Sixtus IV., and 
Clement XIV. The Dominicans, who were established 
to preach against infidels and heretics, adopted at the 
commencement of their career the money-making de- 
vices of the mendicant orders ; but when their reven- 
ues had become so great, and their domains so exten- 
sive that they had attracted a covetous glance from the 
secular power, they prudently annulled the vows by 
which they had been acquired, lest the profane avari- 
ciousness of princes should cause their sequestration. 

The Jesuits professed to have a holy abhorrence of 
riches, but thankfully accepted costly presents, opulent 
legacies, vast tracts of land, and the pecuniary means 
of erecting numerous stately structures. While this 
pious fraternity resolved not to accept any ecclesiasti- 
cal dignity, it secretly and artfully labored to acquire 
all the privileges of the mendicant orders, all the ad- 
vantages of the secular clergy, and to make the mem- 
bers of its order superior to those of any other, and its 
general next in power and importance to the pope. By 
hypocrisy, intrigue, and cringing sycophancy, these un- 
scrupulous monks obtained rights and privileges enjoyed 
by no other ecclesiastical corporation. They not only 
obtained exemption from all civil and episcopal taxes, 



MONASTIC ORDERS. 141 

and from all amenability to any other power than that 
of the pope ; but also the authority of absolving from 
all sins and ecclesiastical penalties ; of changing the 
object of the vows of the laity; and of acquiring 
churches and domains without restriction. They were 
privileged also to suit their dress to circumstances, their 
conduct to peculiarities, their profession to the views of 
others ; to be accommodating and complaisant while 
pursuing a political enterprise, and under the mask of 
any external appearance to prosecute in secret what 
might excite opposition if openly avowed. They were 
allowed to become actual merchants, mechanics, show- 
men, actors, and to adopt any profession calculated to 
facilitate the accomplishment of a design, and to throw 
off the mask whenever they thought expedient. Organ- 
ized on the principles of deception, and unrestricted in 
their privileges, they secretly labored for their own 
aggrandizement, while they publicly professed to be 
sacrificing their interests to the salvation of mankind. 
They became professors of universities and tutors of 
schools, that they might select the brightest minds of 
the rising generation, and mould them to their pur- 
poses. They became the spiritual guides of females of 
rank and opulence, that they might avail themselves of 
their influence and control their wealth. They became 
the confessors of princes, that they might penetrate 
their intentions, ferret out their secrets, w T atch over 
their conduct, and enslave and govern their minds. 
They became the governors of colonies, in order to 
grasp secular revenues, and to exercise the political 
power in behalf of their interests. They established 
seminaries and boarding schools for both sexes, in 



142 PAGAN OEIGIN OF THE 

order to acquire dominion over the young; they 
sought to occupy the confessional, in order to dis- 
cover all domestic and governmental secrets ; and they 
labored to monopolize the pulpit, in order to manufac- 
ture public opinion, and influence the general tone of 
society in their favor. 

The numerous divisions into which the religious or- 
ders were divided, and their different degrees of aus- 
terity, enabled the church to suit its policy to the cor- 
ruption or purity, the ignorance or learning of the 
nation it sought to proselyte and govern. Under its 
direction the monks flattered every power they were 
ordered to subvert, and blushed at no sycophancy that 
facilitated the accomplishment of an object. Governed 
by unnatural vows, they sacrificed freedom, the source 
of natural sentiment, to credulity and blind submis- 
sion The most absurd and criminal injunctions of a 
superior or general were obeyed without compunction 
or remorse. If they aspired after perfection, it was by 
sacrificing the virtues of life. If they strove to obtain 
personal purity, it was by violating the laws of their 
being. They sought to atone for offences by scourging 
their backs, ironing their limbs, chaining themselves to 
rocks, passing their lives in caves, in days without food, 
in nights without sleep, in years without speaking ; sub- 
sisting without money, propagating without women, 
acquiring the respect of the world they despised, the 
riches they contemned, and the dignity they abjured. 
They were a palpable deception, yet an object of uni- 
versal veneration. By cunning and obsequiousness 
they sought and obtained power ; by duplicity and 
fraud they amassed fortunes; by luxury and tyranny 



MONASTIC OBDEES. 143 

they oppressed the world. Every species of absurdity, 
art, hypocrisy, avarice, ambition and despotism, under 
the guise of sanctity was embodied in their organiza- 
tion, and illustrated in their conduct. 

The doctrines which they taught were often as per- 
nicious as their professions were false, and their con- 
duct crafty. As the accommodating morality of their 
religion allowed them to adopt any profession, or any 
mode of life that would favor the success of a design, 
so the license of their sophistry enabled them to con- 
strue the maxims of virtue according to any standard 
that would justify the conduct dictated by their interest 
or sycophancy.. By the pliancy of their moral code 
they consecrated the basest means to pious ends. By 
the subterfuge of perplexing interpretations, mental 
reservations, and an artful ambiguity of language, they 
excused and sanctioned perjury and every other crime. 
They taught that offences were justified, if, when com- 
mitted, the criminal thought differently from what he 
said or done ; and that a mental reservation nullified 
the obligation of any promise, of any contract, or of 
any treaty. The perversions of the maxims of virtue 
by which they sought to justify the crimes of others, 
they applied to their own conduct in the broadest sense. 
In 1809, when the papal archives were brought to 
France, the startling fact became public that the holy 
fathers had been in the habit of availing themselves of 
pious subterfuges. It then appeared that while they 
had made contracts, and issued bulls in conformity with 
the demands of temporal princes, they had at the same 
time nullified, by virtue of mental reservations, such of 
them as were obnoxious. 



144 IMMORALITY OF THE 

The absurdities and perniciousness of their moral 
code were not exceeded by those of their penal code. 
According to the doctrines of Catholicity the guilt of 
every crime may be expiated by the performance of 
penance. To regulate the priest in prescribing this 
mode of punishment, the church furnished him with an 
ecclesiastical body of laws, which he as carefully as pru- 
dently concealed from the eyes of the intelligent. All 
priests were enabled, by the use of this code, to under- 
stand the true orthodox degree of punishment which 
had been authoratively decided should be inflicted on 
penitents, for the commission of any offence of word, 
thought or deed ; and a uniformity in the administra- 
tion of penal prescriptions was maintained, which har- 
monized with the divine inspiration by which the con- 
fessor pretended to be guided in the matter. Fasts, 
prayers, self-torture, abstinence from business, were, 
by the authority of the ecclesiastical code, declared to 
be the divinely appointed methods of expiating the 
guilt of rape, of fornication, of adultery, of robbery, 
of murder, and of every degree and species of crime. 
These offences being very henious in their nature, and 
very frequently committed by those who believed in the 
ability of the church to absolve them from their guilt, 
and time being required for the performance of the 
atoning penance, it is easy to see that an ordinary Cath- 
olic sinner was in eminent danger of incurring a debt 
which would require several centuries of penance to 
liquidate. Here was a dilemma. Long fasting would 
starve him ; long abstinence from business would em- 
poverish him ; and either expedient would prevent him 
from being a source of revenue to the church ; and, in 



MONASTIC ORDERS. 145 

fact, defeat the object of the holy sacrament of pen- 
ance. To obviate this difficulty the ingenious method 
of indulgences was adopted. By this happy expedient 
provision was made for the relief of all criminals at 
stipulated prices, graduated according to their pecuni- 
ary circumstances. A penance imposed on a rich sinner 
for one year's indulgence in the commission of a par- 
ticular offence, was, by this crafty device, allowed to 
be cancelled by the payment of twenty shillings to the 
priest ; and if the sinner was poor, by the payment of 
nine shillings Yet even by this indulgence and char- 
itable discrimination, as every separate offence required 
the atonement of a separate penance, few sinners 
escaped incurring less than a debt of three hundred 
years, or of two hundred pounds sterling. The liqui- 
dation of such an obligation during the dark ages would 
consume a small fortune ; but the expansive benevolence 
of the church, touched at the sorrows of her contrite 
members, graciously accepted their land after she had 
exhausted their purse. 

As crime had its degrees of turpitude, the ecclesias- 
tical code prescribed degrees of severity in punishing 
it. Whoever could not pay with their purse had to pay 
with their body. Three thousand lashes, and the repe- 
tition of a portion of the Psalter, were prescribed as an 
indispensable satisfaction for any crime whose penance 
required a year to discharge ; and fifteen thousand 
lashes and the repetition of the whole Psalter, for 
any crime whose penance required five years to dis- 
charge. A year's penance was taxed at three thousand 
lashes, a century's at three hundred thousand lashes, 

and five centuries at fifteen hundred thousand lashes. 
13 



146 IMMOEALITY OF THE 

These scourgings were always sanctified by the repeti- 
tion of psalms. As vicarious flagellation did not im- 
pair the revenues of the church, it was not objected to; 
and a sinner would often expiate his guilt by vigor- 
ously laying the stripes it demanded on the back of an 
accommodating friend. The skill and hardihood of St. 
Dominic was able to discharge the penitential lashes of 
a century in six days ; and his pious example was at- 
tempted to be imitated even by ladies of fashion and 
quality. 

The monasteries were ambiguous, oppressive corpora- 
tions. If they have at times preserved the literary 
treasures of the ancients, they have impaired their au- 
thority by numerous corruptions and interpolations. 
If they have sometimes established institutions for the 
education of youth r they have generally usurped the 
fortunes of their patrons. If they have ever been 
places of refuge for the proscribed, they have always 
been the means of oppressing industry, and restricting 
freedom. If they have been schools for the correction 
of error, and improvement in virtue, yet the absurdities 
and immoralities taught within their sanctuaries, and 
the crimes notoriously practised therein, have in- 
flicted deeper injury on the cause of truth, and on the 
interest of public morals, than can be atoned for by 
any usefulness or virtue which they could possess, or 
can pretend to claim. Their virtues were accidents ; 
their vices natural offsprings. They were financial in- 
stitutions. The labor performed by their inmates as a 
penance, was made a lucrative source of revenue. The 
articles which they manufactured were represented as 
capable of imparting a peculiar blessing to the pur- 



MONASTIC OEDEKS. 147 

chaser, making them cheap at any price. A simple 
badge of a religious order, to which were ascribed di- 
vine virtue, and an unlimited amount of indulgences, 
was sold to lay members at the price of a respectable 
fortune. The tutors with which the monasteries fur- 
nished schools, the professors which they gave to col- 
leges, the confessors with which they supplied princes, 
and the spiritual guides with which they provided the 
affluent of both sexes, were benevolently granted upon 
the payment of exorbitant sums of money. Gold being 
the source of power and luxury, it became the govern- 
ing principle of the church. For it she granted in- 
dulgences to violate the laws of heaven and earth ; 
threatened and repealed excommunications ; and mer- 
chandised every spiritual blessing, all the prerogatives 
of heaven, and all the privileges of earth. Gold sup- 
plied the place of contrition, atoned for the offences of 
criminals, released sinners from purgatory, and opened 
to guilt the gates of Paradise. As it more ably than 
any thing else increased the power and dominion of 
the church, it was a more adorable object than the 
deity, a more precious savior than Christ, a more sanc- 
tifying possession than the Holy Ghost. As all had 
sinned, all had to pay ; and as all were totally depraved, 
all had to be liberal. The confessor was judge ; and as 
he was interested in the amount, he was likely to be ex- 
orbitant in the demand. The sin of total depravity, 
which all had inherited from the forbidden fruit which 
Adam had eaten, empowered a priest to demand of a 
penitent the surrender of the whole of his fortune. 

With extraordinary financial ingenuity, the church 
converted not only the crimes of her members, but the 



148 IMMOEALITY OF THE 

virtues of her departed saints, into a lucrative source 
of revenue. Happily conceiving that the saints, some 
of whom had been executed as malefactors, had per- 
formed more good works than was necessary for the 
salvation of their souls, she inferred that the supera- 
bundant quantity of their goodness might be dealt out 
to the destitute without detriment to the owners. With 
more cupidity than reason, the church laid claim to 
these works of supererogation, and began to vend them 
at exorbitant prices. . The exhaustlessness of the store, 
and the scarcity of the article among her members, 
made the enterprise a very profitable speculation. 

After disposing of a great portion of heaven, and 
finding it exceedingly remunerative, her inveterate 
disposition to traffic led her to examine the saints 
more carefully, and see if they had not other disposable 
material for the exercise of her commercial ingenuity. 
She was not long in discovering that the bones of the 
saints were likely to be deemed as valuable as their vir- 
tues had been, and might prove as marketable. This 
discovery induced an industrious search for their graves, 
and a careful excavation of them. The bones of Sam- 
uel, the judge of Isreal, which had slept for five hun- 
dred years in Palestine, were exhumed and transported 
to Rome. St. Stephen having appeared in a dream to 
a pious man, and informed him where his corpse reposed, 
the locality was immediately examined by bishops and 
priests in company with the dreamer. Unmistakable 
proofs appeared as to the existence of a grave, but 
some honest doubts arose as to it being the identical one 
in which St. Stephen had been deposited ; yet they all 
vanished upon opening the coffin, for such celestial 



MONASTIC ORDERS. 149 

odors arose from the corpse, and such, devout reverence 
was manifested by the trees and rocks in the vicinity, 
that; the most sceptical was satisfied of the genuineness 
of the relics. A saint's tomb being equal in value to a 
gold mine, it was natural for the church to seek for it 
with great eagerness. But the deep earnestness of her 
enthusiasm blunted the acuteness of her judgment. It 
sometimes led her to mistake the bones of cats, of dogs, 
and of jackals for those of saints; and as there is no 
difference between the bones of thieves and murderers 
and those of saints, and as both classes have often been 
regarded by law as synonymous, and interred together 
in the same field, the former were frequently gathered 
up in mistake for the latter. But however mortifying 
were such errors, they did not prove as unfortunate as 
might have been expected ; for until anatomy and his- 
tory had rectified them, the bones of pigs, of jack- 
als, and of malefactors, brought as good prices as the 
veritable bones of saints, were as eagerly sought after ; 
and what is very remarkable, performed as many and 
as great miracles. 

We dp not pretend to assert that the religious orders, 
even the most objectionable of them, did not in some 
instances render valuable aid to the cause of education 
and humanity The sanctity and disinterestedness with 
which their profession was invested, though generally 
assumed, were sometimes real. But the corrupt and 
pernicious principles which entered into their constitu- 
tion, were too self-evident to be concealed from the 
eyes of mankind ; and too revolting to escape the anim- 
adversion of some of the more noble and courageous 

members of their fraternitv. Some of the clergv, and 
13* 



150 ABROGATION OF THE 

many of the learned men of the age boldly complained 
of their base immorality. Their aversion to reform, 
and the worldly policy which characterized their relig- 
ious profession, sunk them in the estimation of the en- 
lightened and philanthropic. Their pernicious inter- 
meddling in political affairs, their cunning and obse- 
quiousness, their busy and intriguing spirit, and the 
powerful confederacy of their orders, made them ob- 
jects of suspicion to jurists and statesmen. The nu- 
merous exemptions which they enjoyed under the pro- 
tection of the laws, their privileges nullifying the 
jurisdiction of the civil authority over them, their 
overgrown power, and the base accommodation of prin- 
ciple to circumstances, by which they labored to advance 
the pope's pretension to supreme dominion, rendered 
their existence in a government a political solecism. 
But notwithstanding these palpable facts, the force of 
habit and of education, the deep-rooted reverence which 
existed in the public mind for the spiritual guides, the 
superstitious dread of their anathemas, and the servile 
temper which monarchical government engenders in the 
minds of subjects, all conspired to conciliate Christen- 
dom to the deep degradation inflicted on society by the 
monastic orders, until their arrogant conduct towards 
some powerful monarch had surpassed the limits of his 
forbearance. It was then that the discontent and in- 
dignation which their outrageous conduct had cre-» 
ated in the public mind, but which superstition had 
held in check, broke forth in bold and explicit demands 
for reformation. Keforms, consequently, were not only 
projected, but peremptorily enforced. The temporal 
and spiritual powers of the monastic orders were re- 



MONASTIC ORDERS. 151 

stricted by the abolishment of their exemptions. Sov- 
reigns appropriated many of their rich estates to educa- 
tion and charitable purposes ; and sometimes to their 
own use. Even Catholic princes obliged the monks to 
submit to unpleasant restrictions, or to purchase exemp- 
tion at an enormous rate. The different orders, one 
after the other, were abrogated on account of some in- 
tolerable conduct. The Jesuists were abolished in Eng- 
land on account of the political plotting of its members ; 
in Holland for having caused the assassination of 
Maurice de Nassau ; in Portugal for an attempt to mur- 
der Joseph I.; in Spain, and its colonies, for conspir- 
ing against the government ; in Italy for licentious- 
ness ; and in France, as the decree expresses, because 
11 Their doctrine destroys the law of nature, that rule 
of morals which God has inscribed on the heart of 
man. Their dogmas break all bounds of civil society, 
authorizing theft, perjury, falsehood, the most inordi- 
nate and criminal impiety, and generally all passions 
and wickedness ; teaching the nefarious principle of 
secret compensation, equivocation and mental reserva- 
tion ; extirpating every sentiment of humanity in 
their sanction of homicide and parracide ; subverting 
the authority of government, and, in fine, overthrowing 
the practice and foundation of religion, and substitut- 
ing in their stead all sorts of superstition, with magic, 
blasphemy, and adultery." That their conduct and 
principles are of the most execrable description, the 
history of. all nations affords melancholy evidence. 
They attempted to dethrone Queen Elizabeth, but de- 
feated in that, sought to murder her. They caused the 
assassination of the Prince of Orange. They endea- 



152 ABROGATION OF MONASTIC ORDERS. 

vored to poison Maximillion I., King of Austria. They 
attempted to murder Henry IV., and Louis XV. They 
poisoned Pope Clement XIII., for having attempted to 
abolish them, and Pope Clement XIX., -for having ab- 
rogated their order, although he did it with mental 
reservations. Loaded with the crimes of ages, and the 
curses of nations, they were abolished with different 
limitations in every part of Europe ; and as they were 
the most powerful of the monastic orders, the others 
rapidly incurred the sentence of the same degradation. 
But notwithstanding all this, the Jesuistical order, so 
execrable in its principles, so dangerous to public peace 
and morals, and so justly reprobated by all enlightened 
men and governments, was restored by Pope Pius VIL, 
who intimated that it would reappear in the same au- 
thority in which it fell. Again these monks are trav- 
ersing the world, arresting the progress of science, 
demoralizing society, and plotting treason and rebel- 
lion in the advancement of the pope's claims to su- 
preme temporal and spiritual dominion, until the foun- 
dation of independent government begins to quake ; 
until the pillars of constitutional liberty begin to tot- 
ter ; until despotism dares insult the ears of freemen 
with the boldness of its prophecies ; and until states- 
men and patriots turn pale as they view the portentous 
vapors darkling the political horizon, which may 
gather into a storm, whose rain will be the blood of 
nations, and whose thunder will shake governments to 
atoms. 



CHAPTER X. 

JPopes, their Pretensions, Elections, Character, and 
A administrations. 

That we may not commit the error of attributing to 
the holy mother absurdities which she repudiates, we 
will inquire what are her pretensions before arraigning 
her reason or justice in making them. An unequivo- 
cal answer to this inquiry may ba obtained from the 
import of her titles, from the bulls of her popes, from 
the canons of her councils, and from the assertions of 
her acknowledged authorities. Some of the pope's ac- 
credited titles are the following : " The Father of all 
Fathers;" "The Chief High Priest and Prince of 
God;" "The Regent of the House of the Lord;" "The 
Oracle of Religion;" "Our Most Holy Lord God;" 
"Our Lord God the Pope;" "The Divine Majesty;" 
" The Victorious God and Man in the See of Rome;" 
" The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the 
world;" "The Bearer of Eternal Life;" "The Most 
Holy Father;" "Priest of the World;" "God's Vicar 
General on Earth;" "The Most High and Mighty God 
on Earth;" "More than God," &c, &c. 

" Pius V., our reigning pope, is prince over all na- 
tions and kingdoms; and he has power to pluck up, scat- 
ter, plant, ruin and build." — Canon of the Council of 
Trent. 

" All mortals are judged by the pope, and the pope 
by nobody." — Lateran Canon. 
T 13* 



154 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

"It is necessary to salvation that all Christians be 
subject to the pope." — Pope Boniface VIII. 

" Ireland, and all the isles on which Christ, the holy 
sun of righteousness hath shone, do belong to the patri- 
mony of St. Peter and the holy Catholic Church" — Bull 
of Pope Adrian. 

11 He (the pope) alone has the right to assume em- 
pire. All nations must kiss his feet. His name is the 
only one to be uttered in the churches. It is the only 
name in the world. He has the right to depose empe- 
rors. No council can call itself general without the 
consent of the pope. No chapter, no book can be re- 
puted canonical without his authority. No one can in- 
validate his sentence ; he can abrogate those of all 
others. He cannot be judged by any. All persons 
whatsoever are forbidden to condemn him who is called 
to the apostolic chair. The Church of Rome is never 
wrong, and will never fall into error. Every Roman 
pontiff when ordained becomes holy." — Bull of Gre- 
gory VII. 

". The pope is supreme over all the world, may im- 
pose taxes, and destroy crowns and castles for the pre- 
servation of Christianity." — St. Thomas Aquinas. 

" The supremacy of the pope over all persons and 
things is the main substance of Christianity." — Bellar- 
minc. 

" The pope is crowned with a triple crown, and is 
constituted over his (God's) hand to regulate concern- 
ing all inferiors ; he opens heaven, sends the guilty to 
hell, confirms emperors, and orders the clerical or- 
ders." — Antonius of Florence, Dist. 40, Si Papa. 

" The pope is the only Vicar of God ; his power is 
over all the world, Pagan as well as Christian, the only 
Vicar of God, who has supreme power and empire over 



ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 155 

all princes and kings of the earth." — Blareus, Be Bom. 
Bed., Art. 5, sec. 19. 

" The pope has supreme power over kings and Chris- 
tian princes ; he may remove them from office, and in 
their place put others." — Brovius, De Bom. Pontiff, 
Cap. 46, p. 62. 

" The pope is the Lord of the whole world. The 
pope has temporal power; his temporal power is most 
eminent. All other powers depend on the pope." — Mar- 
cinus, Jure Brincep. Bom., Lib. 2, cap. 1, 2. 

" The pope is divine monarch, supreme emperor and 
king. Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, 
as king of heaven, of_ earth, and of hell. He is also 
above angels ; so that if it were possible that angels 
could err from the faith, they could be judged and ex- 
communicated by the pope." — Feraris in Bapa, Art. 
11, M. 10. 

" The vicar of God in the place of God, remits to man 
the debt of a plighted promise." — Bens. 4, 134. 

" The pope can do all things that he wishes to do, 
and is empowered by God to do all things that he him- 
self can." — Tib<g. 

" The pope can transubstantiate sin into duty, and 
duty into sin." — Bur and. 

" The bishop of Rome cannot even sin without being 
praised." — Moscovius. 

" God's tribunal and the pope's tribunal are the 
same." — Moscovius. 

From the loftiness of these pretensions, we are invol- 
untarily impelled to look to the holy fathers for cor- 
responding principles, character and conduct. If they 
possess the moral attributes of the deity, they must 



156 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

possess also ■ his physical attributes ; and if they pos- 
sess his physical attributes, they can much easier create 
some world out of nothing over which to domineer, 
than they can create a claim to all the crowns, riches, 
and territory of the earth, out of the patrimony of St. 
Peter, who was never worth a cent. If, indeed, the 
pope's tribunal and God's tribunal are the same ; if he 
above all in heaven would be the proper judge, and 
anathematizer of angels, should any of them fall ; if he 
can annul the obligation of any oath which man is un- 
der to his maker, then he must be the associate judge 
of God Almighty, equal to him in dignity, superior to 
him in jurisdiction, and supereminent to him in author- 
ity. If the pope can transubstantiate sin into duty and 
duty into sin, he can annihilate all distinction between 
right and wrong, and convert the worship of God into 
a sin, and the adoration of himself into a duty. But 
these extraordinary pretensions, if unsupported by ir- 
refragable proofs of divine power and virtue ; if the 
administrative abilitiesof the popes have not transcended 
those of infinite wisdom and goodness ; and if their 
monarchy is not such a just embodiment of unquestion- 
able and universally accepted principles as has produced 
and maintained among their subjects on earth a degree 
of peace, order, and concord superior to that which 
subsists among the angels in heaven, then are their 
pretensions not only presumptous but ridiculous, not 
only arrogant but blasphemous ; denying the existence 
of God by claiming equality with him, contemning his 
authority by usurping his prerogatives, and trampling 
under foot his name and character, by presuming to 
exercise a superior degree of executive . and judicial 
authority. 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 157 

In selecting a person among mortals capable of fill- 
ing a throne so exalted above the thrones of earth and 
heaven, we perceive the great embarrassment nnder 
which those must have labored on whom the difficult 
task was devolved. They claim, however to have suc- 
ceeded by the aid of divine inspiration, although it 
cannot be denied that the persons whom they have se- 
lected were in general the weakest and most corrupt 
men of their age. 

In the course of time and experience it became the 
custom of the bishops, on the demise of a pope, to re- 
commend to the suffrages of the college of cardinals a 
suitable person for his successor. As the populace 
claimed and enjoyed the prerogative of confirming or 
rejecting the choice of the bishops, and as nobles, from 
selfish and ambitious motives, often interfered in the 
proceedings, the papal elections were always scenes of 
excitement, and sometimes of disorder. The jealousy 
of emperors interfered in the matter, also, claiming the 
right to arbitrate between rival candidates, to interdict 
the consecration of any pope elect until the forms of 
his election should be inspected by their deputies, and 
approved by themselves, and to convene synods for the 
purpose of trying any of the holy fathers who should 
be charged with criminal conduct, and to punishing 
such of them as should be found guilty. But the des- 
potism of the church, naturally increasing with her 
power, enabled her eventually to relieve herself of 
these unpleasant restrictions, to assert independence of 
the secular powers, and to maintain it by force of 
arms. This papal triumph removing the wholesome 

check which had hitherto restrained and softened the 
14 



158 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

violence of episcopal ambition, left the claims of rival 
candidates for the vicarship of Christ to be disputed by 
the anathemas of the clergy and the frenzy of the 
mob. The knell of a pope's death became the tocsin of 
war, and the election of his successor a bloody struggle 
for political interest. Rival aspirants appeared in the 
ecclesiastical arena ; acrimonious contests ensued ; ad- 
herents were bought ; competitors insulted ; votes ex- 
torted by threats ; Rome polluted with blood ; and the 
peace of Christendom endangered. To defeat a hostile 
or elect a friendly candidate, nobles and princes would 
appeal to the passions of the mob, and excite them to 
ungovernable fury. Emperors would interpose not only 
in the election, but in the administration of a pope. 
They often obliged the inspired college to select such a 
candidate as suited their interest ; sometimes they pre- 
vented, and at other times anticipated its action. 
Through the influence and intrigues of two royal harlots, 
Theodora and Marozia, the chair of St. Peter was 
filled With, their lovers. Pope John XII. , when he was 
eighteen years old, and Pope Benedict IX., when he 
was twelve years, were, through the wealth and power 
of those prostitutes, elevated to the papal dignity. 
Pope John XII was deposed for ingratitude and trea- 
chery by the Emperor Otho I., who caused the inspired 
college to elect Leo VII., and placed him by military 
force on the apostolic throne. Pope John XIII. was 
elected by the inspired college at the command of Otho 
II., Pope Clement II. at the command of Henry III., 
and Pope Clement III. at the Command of Henry IV. 
Clement II. was elected to displace Benedict IX., Clem- 
ent III. to displace Gregory VII., Boniface I. to dis- 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 159 

place Dioscorus, and Martin V. to displace. John XXIL, 
Gregory XII. and Benedict XII. three cotemporaneous 
holy fathers. The antagonistic al popes would mutu- 
ally denounce each other as anti-popes, and tax their 
ingenuity to effect each other's destruction. Benedict 
XII. disposed of his rival by violence ; John XIV. in- 
carcerated his in a dungeon, in which he starved to 
death. 

Besides the rivalship which infuriated opposing candi- 
dates, and the intermeddling of princes in their elec- 
tions in order to secure a pliant instrument for their 
political designs, the inspired college itself was often 
rent into revengeful and irreconcilable factions. So 
violent sometimes wero these conflicts, that the col- 
lege became divided into two parties, each of which 
proceeded to separate' churches, and electing its favor- 
ite, presented him to the people as having been chosen 
by divine inspiration. Two antagonistical popes thus 
being elected in accordance with papal usages, divine 
inspiration, and canonical law, it became difficult, with- 
out the aid of another inspired college, to determine 
which of the two popes was the genuine holy 
father. Sometimes this question was decided by prior- 
ity in the moment of an election ; sometimes popular 
sanction or imperial preference resolved the difficulty ; 
and at other times different sections of Christendom 
arriving at opposite conclusions, supported different 
popes. At one period two popes divided the patrimony 
of St. Peter, the one reigning over one portion of it, 
and the other over another ; and at another time three 
popes asserted jurisdiction over it. These rival holy 
fathers would incessantly encounter ono another with 



160 POPES— THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

bulls, anathemas, and swords ; and invoking foreign 
arms in their support would distract, not only Rome, 
but all Europe, with their irreconcilable controversies. 

In order to abate the calamity of the papal elections, 
Pope Alexander III., chosen in 1179, abolished the 
mode of electing a pope in which the clergy and 
people participated, and invested the sole right in 
the college of cardinals. This expedient prevented 
the frequency of double elections, and their tumultuous 
and bloody schisms. But still the disorderly elements 
which shook the church could not be entirely eradicated 
without the abolishment of the papal throne. The pas- 
sions and private interests of the members of the sacred 
college ; their wish to secure the honors and emoluments 
of an independent reign ; their insidious machinations 
to become popes themselves ; often deprived the church, 
under the new electoral method, of the benefits of a 
holy father. An interregnum of months, sometimes of 
years, would ensue between the death of a pope and 
the election of his successor, while disgraceful negotia- 
tions were always visible. Pope Clement IV. promised 
the crown of both of the Sicilies to Charles of Anjou, 
on condition that he would use his influence with the 
inspired college in favor of his election to the papal 
throne ; and Pope Boniface VIII. , after expending large 
sums of money on an election, excommunicated the 
obstinate cardinals who had refused to vote for him. 

The ambition and corruption of the cardinals having 
kept the papal throne vacant for three years previous 
to the election of Gregory X., he issued a bull in 1265, 
requiring the members of the college to assemble in 
Rome nine days after the demise of a pope, and after 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 161 

taking an oath to abjure all previous understanding, to 
retire with a single attendant into a common apart- 
ment, and to remain there until they should be able to 
agree on a choice. If within three days the influence 
of the Holy Ghost should not be sufficiently powerful 
to enable them to arrive at a canonical agreement, the 
luxury of their repast was to be abridged to a single 
dish at dinner and supper; and if within eight days 
these privations should still be insufficient to quicken 
the divine influence on the grossness of human nature, 
the cardinals were then condemned to subsist on a small 
allowance of bread, water and wine. The stimulus of 
this regimen has seldom failed to produce a speedy and 
harmonious agreement. 

But the corruption of the Holy See was the growth of 
ages, and had carefully been systematized by the hand 
of experienced craft. It could not therefore be entirely 
eradicated by any modification in the papal electoral 
forms ; although improvements might be introduced, 
making them the occasion of less scandal. The fact 
that an attendant on a cardinal during the session of an 
electoral college is worth an independent fortune, is 
significant of the corrupt machinations by which the 
holy fathers continue still to be elected. The bull of 
Pope Gregory X. has, ineed, prevented the former fre- 
quency of schisms, but it was insufficient to prevent one 
of seventy years' duration, which occurred on the 
death of Pope Benedict XI, in 1348. The inspired 
college having assembled in accordance with the re- 
quirements of the canon, sworn to abjure all pre- 
vious understanding, became, nevertheless, divided on 

the question whether a Frenchman or an Italian should 
14* 



162 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

be elected as the vicar of Christ. Two-thirds of the 
cardinals were in favor of a Frenchman, but a mob of 
thirty thousand Romans preferred an Italian. " Death 
or an Italian Pope/' shouted an infuriated crowd, as 
it gathered around the Vatican, and made preparations 
for burning any of the inspired college who should vote 
for a French candidate ; while the cathedral bells, in 
harmony with the discordant clamor of the mo~b, pealed 
forth an ominous warning. Under the terror of these 
intimidations, the inspired college submitted to the 
wishes of the mob ; and electing Urban VI., an Italian, 
and presenting him to the populace declared, according 
to usage, that they had been inspired to choose him 
through the influence of the Holy Gho&t. The disap- 
pointed cardinals disguised their mortification under 
the warmest congratulations to the newly elected pope, 
but gratified their secret malice by entering into clan- 
destine negotiation with Philip IV., King of France, 
and stipulating with him to accommodate his interest 
by electing a pope in the place of Urban, who should 
conform to his wishes in all things. After having by 
flattery, and professions of friendship and allegiance, 
sufficiently deceived the vicar of Christ, they retired 
to Fundi, and, excommunicating him, elected Pope 
Clement in his place. The papal monarchy hence be- 
came divided into two antagonistical bodies, the one 
having its capitol at Rome, the other at Avignon in 
France. 

The aspirants to the dignity of the vicarship of 
Christ endeavored, in general, to obtain its holy honors 
by the employment of artifice and intrigue. They were 
ready to flatter any power, assume any semblance, agree 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. I6S 

to any terras, and profess any sentiment that promised 
to favor their design. At the council of Constance, 
Pope Martin V. advocated the most liberal ecclesiasti- 
cal reforms, but recanted his heresy as soon as he ob- 
tained the triple -crown. Pope Alexander VI. was 
elected by bribing Cardinals Cibo, Spozza and Rearis. 
Pope Alexander VII., while a cardinal, assumed the 
semblance of great humility and sanctity, but no sooner 
had he become a successor of St. Peter, than he threw 
off the cumbrous mask by which he gained the honor; 
and openly began a course of dissipation and luxurious 
indulgence. Sixtus VI. played a deep and crafty game 
to win the papal crown. In order to deceive the car- 
dinals he assumed the appearance of an infirm old man, 
deaf, blind, and scarcely able to hobble on a crutch; 
and who desired nothing but obscurity, devotion and 
repose. By the agency of the confessional he correctly 
informed himself of the wishes of princes and the secret 
designs of cardinals. Under a mask of profound dis- 
simulation he gained the confidence of kings and nobles, 
and evaded the scrutiny of cardinals. Having trans- 
formed himself into the semblance of such a convenient 
tool as the members of the college desired to place on 
the apostolic throne, they chose him unanimously-; 
but repented of it unanimously immediately afterwards. 
No sooner had the electoral formalities been con- 
concluded than, in the presence of the cardinals, he 
raised himself from his former stooping position, con- 
temptuously threw away his crutch, and with a 
bounding and vigorous step displayed to the horror 
consternation of the sacred college that it had chosen 
for a holy father, not : a pliant simpleton-,- but -a man of 



164 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

authority, determination, and sagacity. Pope Celes- 
tine was elected solely on account of his ignorance 
and mental imbecility. For twenty-seven months 
the disputes of the cardinals had kept the papal 
throne without an incumbent. To conciliate their 
differences they finally agreed to elect Celestine, 
who was celebrated for his intellectual deficiency 
and profound ignorance of the world. When this 
holy father entered Apulea after his consecration, 
he symbolically rode upon an ass. But his incapabil- 
ity of transacting the ordinary business the Holy See, 
obliged the sacred college to reassemble, and endeavor 
by the aid of the Holy Ghost to select a more suitable 
vicar of Christ. It succeeded in electing Boniface 
VIII. , who possessed more business capacity, but less 
moral integrity ; and who, standing in mortal dread of 
his simple and unaspiring predecessor, and fearing the 
instability of the apostolic throne while he was at 
large, pusillanimously imprisoned him for life. 

It is a singular fact that while distant potentates 
trembled at the thunders of the Vatican, the subjects 
of Rome scoffed with impunity at its insolent preten- 
sions. The tyranny and corruption of the holy fathers 
have frequently been met with contempt and insurrec- 
tion by the populace. The cardinals have at times 
been stripped, beaten, and trodden under foot. The 
priests have been caught by mobs, which, after digging 
out their eyes, and crowning their heads with ludicrous 
mitres, have sent them as admonitions to the pope. 
The sacred processions, headed by the holy fathers, 
have been saluted with showers of stones. The vice- 
gerents of God, while on the apostolic throne, have 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 165 

been seized by the throat, rudely buffeted, torn from 
their chair and incarcerated in dungeons. Laudislaus, 
King of Naples, whom the 'pope had entitled " Gen- 
eral of the Church" in consideration of services ren- 
dered, thrice afterwards entered Rome as a master, 
profaned the churches, violated the virgins, plundered 
the citizens, and worshipped at the shrine of St. Peter. 
The holy fathers, assailed by subjects at home and 
princes abroad, were constantly fleeing from the inse- 
cure patrimony of St. Peter to find refuge in France, 
Anangni, Perugia, Viterbo, or some other locality. 
Sometimes they retaliated the insults of their Catholic 
subjects, and levied armies to chastise them; and, on 
one occasion they had, in a friendly conference, eleven 
deputies of the people murdered in cold blood, and 
their bodies cast into the streets. 

"When the Holy See was transplanted from Rome to 
Avignon, the vices, corruption, and tumults which were 
characteristic were transplanted along with it. The 
same popular insubordination and papal insecurity pre- 
vailed ; the people were seditious and the popes in- 
sulted. A Catholic freebooter at the head of his band, 
once entered Avignon, plundered the people and 
churches, compelled the pope and cardinals to ransom 
themselves by the payment of an enormous sum of 
gold, and to absolve him and his fellow robbers from 
the guilt of the transaction, and from all their crime. 

Notwithstanding the ostentatious sanctity and gor- 
geous show with which the church invests her external 
form, her throne has never been occupied by a distin- 
guised paragon of virtue ; nor has it, notwithstanding 
her liberal indulgence to moral turpiturd, often been 



166 . POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

graced by those whom she dared to canonize for the 
purity of their conduct. High principled and lofty 
minded men have scorned to aspire to her dignities ; 
and had they not, they still could not have stooped to 
the dishonorable means by which they are to be ob- 
tained. With pretensions demoralizing her officials by 
destroying their sense of moral accountability, fostering 
their vanity, pride and superciliousness, and dissolving 
all restraints on the instigations of malice, revenge, 
cupidity, licentiousness, duplicity and tyranny, it would 
be absurdity to expect to find in their character any 
exalted degree of moral excellence. Look at those 
whom the inspired college has chosen vicegerent of 
God. Where we might expect to see the Solons, 
Cimons, and Catos of the age, we always see despotism, 
generally duplicity, and often profligacy and cruelty. 
Look at Pope Gregory, the Great. Was he not an as- 
piring and unscrupulous despot ? While pretending to 
wish to be unknown, did he not employ every device to 
become the most notorious man of his age. To pave 
his way to the pontifical throne, ho devoted his patri- 
mony to the use of convents, and immured himself in 
them. By seeming to resist, he secured his election ; 
and by addressing an artful remonstrance against its 
confirmation to the emperor, he removed every obstacle 
in the way of his consecration. To disguise more 
deeply his ambition, he solicited a merchant, whom he 
knew could not accommodate him, to convey him 
secretly from Borne ; and, finally, overacted his part by 
secreting himself in a wilderness, and building a fire 
that his retreat might be discovered. His financial 
skill was unquestioned. He induced Becared, King of 



ELECIONS AND /ADMINISTRATIONS. 16? 

Spain, to exchange a great amount of gold and a valu- 
able collection of jewels for a few hairs of St. John 
the Baptist, a piece of the true cross, a key which, it 
was alleged, contained some grains of a chain with 
which St. Peter had been shackled while in a dungeon. 
He also sanctified the most atrocious assassination that 
was, perhaps, ever perpetrated. The Koman legions 
having become demoralized, the Emperor Maurice at- 
tempted to reduce them to order by the enforcement of 
rigorous military discipline. This effort produced a 
general dissatisfaction among the troops, which culmi- 
nated in the election of Phocus, an obscure soldier, in 
the place of Maurice. The emperor, desirous of restor- 
ing tranquility to the nation, magnanimously abdicated 
the purple. Never having heard of the name of 
Phocus before, he inquired of his general who he was. 
"Alas," replied he, " a great coward, and I fear will 
be a murderer." This prophecy was soon fulfilled. 
Phocus sent to the private dwelling of Maurice assas- 
sins, who, before the eyes of their father coldly butch- 
ered his five sons, and then consummated the horrible 
tragedy with the murder of the emperor himself. After 
this barbarous act had been perpetrated, Pope Gregory, 
although he owed his elevation to the indulgence of 
Maurice, complimented Phocus on his good fortune, and 
rejoiced that his piety and benignity had raised him to 
the imperial throne. 

From this model pope let us turn to Pope John XII., 
elected in 956. In ambition unprincipled, in cruelty 
inexorable, in dissoluteness cold and calculating ; the 
annals of history scarcely furnish an equal compound of 
moral deformity. Elevated to the papal throne through 



168 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

the influence of a prostitute, he made the principles of 
his patroness the maxims of his conduct. He was a 
drunkard, a profligate, a blasphemer, and a murderer. 
He passed his time in hunting and gambling. Ho 
swore by the Pagan Gods and Goddesses. He lived in 
public adultery with Roman matrons. He converted 
the papal palace into a brothel, and made it a school for 
education in the arts of prostitution. His rapes of 
widows, wives, and virgins were so frequent, that fe- 
male pilgrims were deterred from visiting the tomb of 
St. Peter, for fear of being violated by the holy father 
while kneeling at his shrine, to invoke' his aid in the 
practice of chastity and piety. 

Now advert to Gregory VII., elected in 1075, and 
see what baseness, trickery, avarice, and insolence have 
been consecrated as holy in the character of a vicar of 
Christ. Protected from reproach by his claim to infal- 
libility, he presumed to outrage the sense of common 
decency by living with the Countess Matilda under sus- 
picious circumstances ; and conceiting that he was en- 
dowed with supreme power over all kings and govern- 
ments, and that if they resist his authority he must 
punish them, he undertook to dethrone Henry IV., Em- 
peror of Germany and Italy, because that prince had 
exercised the right of investiture contrary to the inter- 
diction of the papal bulls. For this insolent proceed- 
ure the emperor determined to depose him, and drive 
him from Pome. Penetrating the emperor's design, he 
attempted to defeat it by buying the adherence of the 
Italian populace; but this movement was effectually 
counterpoised by the emperor's purchasing the support 
of the Italian nobility. He also convened aj)ouncil at 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTEATIONS. 169 

by which Gregory was deposed ; and another at Brisen 
at which Clement IIL was elected. To place Clement 
in possession of the papal dignity, Henry formed a 
coalition with the Emperor Alexius : to defeat this pro- 
ject Gregory formed an alliance with Robert Guiscard, 
Duke of Apulia. The arms of Robert were victorious, 
and Gregory was delivered from his perilous situation. 
But victory sometimes is as disastrous as defeat. The 
formidable allies of the holy father, which success had 
introduced into the city of Borne, comprehended a nu- 
merous band of Saracens who hated the Christian name 
and capital, although they had for money and the 
license of war been induced to take up arms in defence 
of the sacerdotal monarch. A furious sedition happen- 
ing to arise in the city among the inhabitants, the Sara- 
cens eagerly availed themselves of the occasion to 
gratify their hatred of Borne and of Christianity. They 
commenced murdering the citizens, plundering dwel- 
lings, profaning churches, and firing buildings; nor 
was their revenge satiated until they had, not only de- 
populated the city, but reduced the greater portion of 
it to ashes. This catastrophe completed the disgrace 
of Gregory. Finding himself universally detested as 
its author, he had to flee for safety to Salerno, leaving 
Henry to consummate, without opposition, his design of 
placing Clement IIL upon the apostolic throne. 

From the conduct of this crafty and talented sacerdo- 
tal despot, let us turn a glance at pope Innocent II., 
elected in 1130. The elevation of this Bope was the 
tocsin of a war which, during his administration, kept 
Borne and Italy in a state of violent convulsion. The 

sacred college not being able canonically to concur in 
15 



179 ..--POPES— THEIR PRETENSIONS,.,.. 

his election, became divided into two obstinate factions-, 
each of which elected a vicegerent of God ; the one 
being Pope Innocent II., and the other Pope Anaclitus. 
Two implacable despots being thus authorized to claim 
the papal throne, a furious holy war was inevitable. 
Anaclitus having the heavier artillery drove Innocent 
from Rome ; but France and Germany espousing the 
cause of the fugitive, enabled him to secure a sufficient 
army to effect his return. He was, nevertheless, obliged 
to limit his papal jurisdiction to one portion of the 
city ; his antagonist being too strongly entrenched in 
the other to be dislodged. But even from this limited 
domain he was again driven by the arms of his formid- 
able rival, and again reinstated by the forces of the 
temporal power. The two holy fathers continued to 
hate, persecute and anathematize each other, until 
death settled the sanguinary controversy by the removal 
of Anaclitus. Relieved of the terrors of a powerful 
adversary, Innocent II. convoked the Lateran Council, 
in which one thousand bishops condemned the soul of 
Anaclitus, and excommunicated Rogers of Sicily for 
having supported the schismatic. On account of this 
papal insolence, Robert declared war against Pope In- 
nocent ; and taking him prisoner, obliged him to ab- 
solve him from the sentence of the excommunication, 
and to invest him with the papal provinces of Apulia, 
Capua, and Calibria. 

Let us now direct a moment's attention to Pope Inno- 
cent III, elected in 1198, who, when receiving the 
triple crown exclaimed : " The church has given me a 
crown as a symbol of temporalities she has conferred 
on me a mitre in token of spiritual power ; — a mitre for 



' ELECIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. ' 171 

the priesthood ; a crown for the kingdom ; making me 
the vicar of him who bears on his garments and 
thighs, ' The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords."' 
Inflated with this popular conceit he imagined that he 
was supreme prince over all nations and kingdoms, and 
that he had a divine light to pluck up, destroy, scatter, 
ruin, plant and build whenever a notion happened to in- 
spire his presumptuous brain. He arbitrarily obliged 
the prefect of Rome to swear allegiance to him, de- 
manded royal homage of Marguard of Romagna, and 
upon the refusal of that prince to compromise his sov- 
reignty by submitting to such unwarrantable dictations, 
deprived him of the duchy of Mark Ancona. With 
a despotic hand he wrung Spoleto from Duke Conrad. 
He excommunicated Philip of France for having repu- 
diated his wife, and obliged him to sue for mercy at his 
feet. He deposed King John, of England, for refusing 
to confirm the election of a bishop ; instigated France 
to declare war against him, obliged him to resign his 
kingdom to the See of Rome, to pay large sums of 
money for absolution, and to hold his throne as a papal 
.fief. He exercised an oppressive despotism over the 
temporal provinces of Christendom, established inqisi- 
sitorial tribunals, suspended religious worship by inter- 
dicts, and urged the cruel persecution of the Albigen- 
ses. When his military forces were ready for combat, 
he is said to have exclaimed : " Sword, sword, whet 
thyself for vengeance." 

Turn from this ornament of the papal throne, and con- 
sider the character and administration of Pope Boni- 
face VIII., elected in 1295. Pliable and revengeful, 
presumptuous and ambitious, he sought to make tools of 



172 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

princes, and slaves of subjects. On his way to the 
Lateran palace, after his election, the King of Hungary 
and the King of Sicily, in token of their inferior rank, 
held the bridle of his horse ; and with crowns on their 
heads waited on him at table as menials. He boldly 
excommunicated Philip IV., of France, but cowardly 
sought to escape the penalty by taking refuge in the 
fortress of Anangni. While luxuriating in this sumpu- 
ous retreat, in fancied security, William of Nosgeret sur- 
rounded the palace with three hundred horse, and a 
scuffle ensued in which the vicegerent of God was 
rudely seized by the throat, severely kicked and cuffed, 
and cast into prison. A mob, however, soon released 
him from confinement. In view of his flagitious and 
undeniable acts of duplicity, simony, usurpation and 
profligacy, King Philip had resolved to summon a coun- 
cil at Lyons for the purpose of deposing him ; but the 
chastisement of incarceration which he had undergone 
so mortified his pride, that within three days after his 
liberation he died in a paroxysm of rage and fury. 

Look at the character of Pope Alexander III., elected 
in 1159, who, demoralized and misled by papal preten- 
sions, distracted all Europe, and kept the Holy See in a 
state of perpetual insurrection. Under the protection 
of Frederic I. the anti-popes Victor III., Pascal III., 
and Calaxtus III., successively arose against him ; re- 
peatedly driving him from Rome ; sometimes to France ; 
sometimes to Anangni ; and sometimes to Venice. But 
fortune eventually favoring him, he wreaked the heavi- 
est vengeance on the heads of his antagonists. He 
obliged Frederic to kiss his feet, and to hold the stirrup 
of his horse. He laid Scotland under an interdict. 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS, 173 

He restored the thrones of England and Germany on 
conditions that augmented his power. And in the ex- 
ercise of his apostolic authority gave the world calami- 
tous proof that ecclesiastical supremacy is incompatible 
with the peace of the world. 

Regard for an instant the character of Pope Alex- 
ander VI., elected in 1523, who perfected in his papal 
character the dissipation which had disgraced his youth. 
His policy, both domestic and foreign, was base, treach- 
erous and execrable. He undertook to seize on the 
Italian provinces by the most cruel and dishonorable 
methods. He attempted to extort money from the 
different sections of Christendom by fraud and force. 
He seduced his own daughter ; and gave notorious evi- 
dence of the profligacy of his life by five illegitimate 
children. He conspired with his son, Cardinal Caesar 
Borgia, to poison four cardinals, but the conspirators 
drinking the poison themselves, became the victims of 
their own treachery. 

Look at Pope Julius II., elected in 1505, and mark 
his savage, ferocious, and warlike character. Ambi- 
tious of military renown, he commanded his army in 
person, and without regard to the rights of nations or 
individuals gratified his lust of power and dominion. 
In the prosecution of the interests of the Holy See, he 
excommunicated the Duke of Ferrara, gave Navara to 
Spain, besieged Muandolo, colleagued against the repub- 
lic of Venice, and made war upon Louis XII., King of 
France. 

Behold Clement V., elected in 1305, and mark the 
gross simony, nepotism, and arrogance which disgraced 
his administration. Hear him excommunicating Henry 
15* 



174 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

VII. of Germany, and his allies, for his refusing to me- 
diate between him and Kobert ; and hear him pro- 
nouncing a curse on the Venitians for their refusing to 
submit to his dictation ; declaring them infamous, con- 
fiscating their gold and war vessels, abolishing their 
governmental offices, and absolving the subjects from 
obedience to the laws. 

Turn to John XXII., elected in 1410, and see if any 
vice, public or private, debarred a candidate from the 
papal throne. In his youth a pirate, the sanctity of his 
pontifical character neither restrained nor concealed the 
precocious viciousness which he had manifested. 
Although he may have amused himself with the popish 
conceit that a holy father cannot sin without being 
praised, yet the Council of Constance, on the testimony 
of thirty-seven good Catholic witnesses, found seventy 
indictments against him, and degraded him from the 
papal dignity. Among the crimes for which he was 
deposed were simony, murder, rape, sodomy, and illicit 
intercourse with his brother's wife, and with three hun- 
dred nuns. This holy father died in jail. 

Look at Julius III., elected in 1550, whose unnatural 
licentiousness transcending all bounds of decency, 
sought its gratification with boys, men, and even cardi- 
nals. Hear Sixtus V., in the college of cardinals, pro- 
nouncing a eulogy on the assassinators of Henry III. 
King of France, and comparing them with Judith and 
Eleazer. Hear Alexander I., as he placed his foot on 
Frederic, King, of Denmark, exclaim : " Thus shalt 
thou tread upon the lion and the adder." Hear Pius 
V., as he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth, exclaim : 
" I have this day set thee over the nations, over the 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 175 

kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to build 
up and to throw down." Witness Pope Leo III. ab- 
ruptly crowning Charlemagne, and to the astonish- 
ment of the worl investing him with all the titles, hon- 
ors, and regal ornaments of the Caesars. Witness 
Gregory IV. fomenting discord between Charlemagne 
and his sons, then between the sons themselves, then 
tampering with the officers of the imperial army, then 
absolving them from their oath of allegiance, then ut- 
tering to Louis I., son and successor of Charlemagne, 
that arrogant assertion : " Know my chair is above the 
emperor's throne ;" and ultimately see the design of 
these atrocious acts, in the claim of the subsequent 
popes to the dominion of the Ceesars, by virtue of the 
donation of Charlemagne. 

Look at the two hundred and ninety-seven popes 
that have filled the papal chair : Twenty-four of them 
were anti-popes ; twenty-six were deposed ; nineteen 
were compelled to abandon Kome ; twenty-eight were 
kept on their throne only by foreign intervention ; fifty- 
four were obliged to rule over foreign parts ; sixty-four 
died by violence; eighteen were poisoned; one was 
shut up in a cage ; one was strangled; one smothered ; 
one died by having nails driven in his temples ; one by 
a noose around his neck ; and only one hundred and 
fifty-three out of the whole number have proved them- 
selves at all worthy. Read the papal annals ; hear the 
frequent and atrocious anathemas of the popes ; mark 
the vices that have continued century after century to 
disgrace the administrations of the holy fathers, and 
say if prrofane history affords a catalogue of monarchs 
so black with crime, so unprincipled in ambition, so 



176 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

remorseless in revenge. Their pretensions were made 
not from conscious right, but to justify intended usur- 
pations. They claimed to be endowed with power to 
do whatever God himself could do, in order to forge a 
plea for governing the world as despots. They claimed 
the prerogative of absolving subjects from their oaths 
of allegiance, that they might rule kings with abso- 
lute authority. They claimed that they could not sin 
without being praised, that they might commit any 
crime without being censured. They claimed the abil- 
ity of transubstantiating sin into duty, and duty into 
sin, that they might justify themselves in adopting any 
means to obtain an end. They claimed all the author- 
ity and holiness of heaven, that they might be wor- 
shipped and feared as Gods. But while they had the 
audacity to prefer these claims, it is not a supposable 
case that the dullest of them was such a stupendous 
fool as to believe in the validity of his own pretensions. 
With a triple crown on their heads, with the keys of 
heaven and hell in their hands, with an assertion on 
their lips that they are the king of kings, and the pro- 
prietors of all the thrones, domains, revenues, gold and. 
gems of the earth, they seriously pretend that they are 
the successors of St. Peter, an humble fisherman, who 
like his master, had not where to lay his head, and 
whose patrimony, which they claim to inherit, must 
have consisted at most of but an empty purse, a staff, a 
suit of unfashionable garments, and, perhaps, some old 
fishing nets. And while they have been elected by 
emperors, by mobs, by arms and clubs, by bribery, and 
by every species of corruption, they affirm that they 
have been chosen by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 



ELECTIONS AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 177 

The papal monarchy was neither designed nor calcu- 
lated to foster the growth of either truth, reason or 
virtue. The policy and measures which it adopted 
were never intended to correct vice, hut to make it ad- 
minister to the importance of its power, and the wealth 
of its coffers. Its design has always been to reign su- 
preme ; and in conformity with a policy dictated by 
this design, it has destroyed every virtue that obtruded 
an obstacle to the accomplishment of its purposes, and 
protected every vice that appeared to favor their suc- 
cess. 

Such being the principles of the papal government, it 
could not be hoped that the holy fathers would be the 
friends of truth and reform. In fact they must have 
been conscious that a rigid system of reform would have 
swept them from their thrones, and doomed many of 
them to confinement in the dungeons of a penitentiary. 
Accordingly we see that while temporal princes, some 
clergymen, and numerous laymen loudly demanded re- 
form in the head and body of the church, the popes 
strenuously opposed the project as a dangerous innova- 
tion. "When summons had been issued by temporal 
princes for the assembling of councils for purposes of 
reformation, the pontiffs frequently forbid obedience 
to them. When circumstances have obliged popes to 
issue orders for the convocation of such assemblages, 
they have rendered them nugatory by neglecting to fix 
the time and place to their meeting. "When compelled 
to be more definite in their conduct and language, they 
have endeavored, by changing the time and place for 
holding a proposed council, to defeat the object which 
they were obliged to sanction. When their cautious 



178 __ POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

vacillations have been summarily airested, and all the 
obstacles they had obtruded removed, and a council for 
reform had been assembled, they edeavored by base and 
corrupt means to control its action, and defeat its use- 
fulness. When in defiance of papal remonstrances, 
threats and intrigues, reformatory decrees have been 
passed by councils, the popes have, nevertheless, at- 
tempted to nullify them by evasion, trickery or ne- 
glect. 

Pope Gregory declared that a council could be useful 
only under a Catholic prince. Pius II. forbid an ap- 
peal to a council. Julius II. interdicted the assembling 
of one after it had been summoned. When the united 
voice of princes and subjects compelled Pius VII. to 
call a council, he nullified his own summons by ne- 
glecting to fit the time for its meeting. When a crit- 
ical state of public affairs had led Pope Paul to imagine 
that he could shape the proceedings of an inspired 
council according to his private interest, he convoked 
the Council of Trent ; but finding his intrigues inade- 
quate to his ambition, he induced his legates to exhaust 
its time in frivolous ceremonies and useless excursions. 
When the Council of Pisa obliged Alexander VII. to 
pledge his word to prosecute certain specified reforms, 
he adopted no measure in compliance with his word. 
When the Council of Basle enacted decrees of reform, 
the artifice of Pope Eugenius rendered them of no 
avail. When the Council of Constance, after deposing 
three rival popes, elected Martin V. in consideration of 
the zeal with which he had advocated church reform, 
it was soon apparent that his zeal for reform was his 
ambition to be elevated to the papal throne, and 



ELECTIONS. ..AND ADMINISTRATIONS. 179 

that it all had expired as soon as his election was se- 
cure. Pope Pius denounced the reforms which Joseph 
II., of Austria, proposed to introduce into his kingdom, 
and adopted every expedient to counteract them. 
When the tyranny and profligacy of the monastic or- 
ders had awakened the indignation of all Christendom, 
the vicar of Christ, by means of bulls, anathemas and 
intrigues, defended them with ferocious zeal. When 
the Jesuists were banished from England for treason- 
able machinations, from Italy for profligacy, from 
Portugal for attempts at assassination, and from the 
other parts of Europe for execrable conduct, the popes 
not only defended, but recommended them as the most 
pious and useful members of the church. When the 
papal throne was restored by England, a heretic, and 
Russia, a schismatic, in conjunction with the Catholic 
powers, after it had been abolished by France, the 
pope, in defiance of the wishes and resolutions of his 
liberators, ahd in violation of the obligations of honor 
and gratitude, restored the barbarous inquisition, the 
obnoxious order of the Jesuists, and the superstitious 
practices of the dark ages. 

The holy mother, indeed, has given birth to little be- 
sides monstosities. The features and principles of her 
offspring cast a dark suspicion on her chastity. They 
usually wear the lineament, if not the cloven foot of 
the arch-fiend. Ambition, duplicity, treachery, vicious- 
ness, arid immorality are deeply featured in their 
countenances, and some of them seem to be an incarna- 
tion of every crime that could entitle a human being to 
be considered as the offspring and heir ' of hell. If 
there were some honorable exceptions, they were like 



180 POPES — THEIR PRETENSIONS, 

stars on a stormy night, obscured by the heavy mist 
through which they shone. Some popes, it is true, 
have been great governors ; men of great foresight and 
enterprise ; men who, looking beyond their age, have 
prepared measures that have successfully met future 
exegencies ; but their sagacity has been quickened by 
ambition and avarice ; and their great talents have 
been wasted on duplicity and intrigue. The less ex- 
ceptionable of them have acknowledged and deplored 
the corruption of the Ho]y See ; but they seem to think 
it is incurable, for their hopes of the future are always 
darkened by the recollection of the past. Hence we 
hear Nicholas V., as he bestowed an office on the 
worthy, say : " Take this, you will not always have a 
Nicholas to bestow a gift on the ground of merit." 



CHAPTER XI. 
THE PAPAL MONARCHY. 



SECTION ONE. 

The Papal Crown — Banner—Cabinet — Court — Decrees 
— Jurisprudence — Coinage — Army and Navy — Re- 
venues — Oaths — and Spies, 

Whatever plausibility the creed and ritual of the 
Catholic church may throw around her religious preten- 
sions, the fact is undeniable that she is a temporal 
power, claiming to be the only legitimate sovereignty 
on earth, and the right to reduce all governments, by 
fair or foul means, under her absolute authority. The 
pope, the head of this unlimited monarchy, is a polit- 
ical prince ; his capital is the city of Rome, and his do- 
mains, until recently, were the States of the Church. 
According to a practice observed at the coronation of 
princes, the pope is invested with national authority by 
ascending the Chair of State, and receiving a head- 
dress emblematical of temporal sovereignty. These 
symbolical headdresses were originally garlands, in- 
vented by Prometheus in imitation of the chains which 
he had worn for the redemption of mankind, but 
which in the course of time became applied, by the 
Uranian priestesses to decorate themselves aud their 
altars ; by lovers, to adorn the doors of their mis- 

tressees : by the devout, to deck the animals which they 
16 



182 THE PAPAL 

devoted to sacrifice ; by slave owners, to attract atten- 
tion to the slaves whom the exposed for sale ; by rela- 
tives, to embellish the corpse of a deceased friend ; and 
finally, in the dark ages, when they were transformed 
into a variety of fantastical shapes, profusely decorated 
with gold, gems and pearls, and had become associated 
w T ith ideas of greatness, power and authority, they 
were exclusively appropriated by kings to symbolize 
the regal authority. In the ninth century, this practice 
having become fashionable among the royal classes, 
Pope Alexander III., who was elected in 1159, aspiring 
to be considered rather as the successor of kings than 
of a fisherman, ventured to encircle his sacerdotal 
mitre with a regal diadem, emblematical of universal 
spiritual sovereignty. To this crown Pope Boniface 
VIII., elected in 1295, added a second, to symbolize the 
pope's universal temporal power ; and to this crown 
Pope Urban V., elected in 1363, added a third, to de- 
note the pope's supreme spiritual and temporal power 
over Europe, Asia and Africa. The adoption of these 
regal emblems by the holy fathers may seem in the 
eyes of the profane to represent not their rights, but 
their ambition. They claim, however, to have been moved 
by the Holy Ghost in adopting their head decorations ; 
but if this pretension absolves them from the vice of 
ambition, it limits at the same time their authority to 
Europe, Asia and Africa. The Holy Ghost not having 
intimated the existence of America in his social inter- 
course with the papal monarchs, nor prescribed to them 
the adoption of a fourth crown to symbolize their 
authority over it, it is rational to infer from these facts 
that he intended to infer by his silence, that the popes 



monaeohy; 183 

have no right whatever of exercising any jurisdiction 
over its territory. If the pope's regalia have any sig- 
nificance, it is that his government is restricted to 
Europe, Asia and Africa; and that he has no right to 
exercise either temporal or spiritual authority over any 
church, society or institution, on the American conti- 
nent. But in sight of the pope's monarchical palace, 
triple crown, and regal ornaments, the statue of St. 
Peter, erected in the seventh century, wearing a simple 
mitre, stands scoffing at them in eternal derision. 

The pope as an independent sovereign has not only 
a temporal crown, but a political banner. This ensign 
consists of a white flag with a device of cross-keys ; its 
white color may signify peace ; the cross-keys the pos- 
session of earth and heaven ; and, conjointly, these em- 
blems may intimate that there is to be no peace until 
the claims of the pope to universal spiritual and tem- 
poral sovereignty is acknowledged by all nations. 
Apollo, the symbol of the rising sun, and Pluto, the 
symbol of the closing day, are represented with keys in 
their hands, to denote their office of opening and shut- 
ting the gates of day. It is thought by some that the 
idea of the papal keys was borrowed from these em- 
blems of the Pagan Gods. But it was the custom of a 
conquered city to present to the victor the keys of its 
gates, through its , officials, in token of the submission 
of the inhabitants to his authority. In conformity: 
with this ancient custom, it is affirmed by the popes 
that Pepin, King of France, after he had wrested the 
Exarcate from the possession of the Lombards, pre- 
sented the keys of the subjugated cities to the Holy 
See on the .tomb of /St. Peter. . They assert- also, that 



184 THE PAPAL 

Charlemagne presented the pope with a banner, and 
authorized him to unfurl it in the cause of the church. 
But if the story of Pepin's gift is as empty as the tomb 
of St. Peter, at Rome, is and always has been, of the 
corpse of the apostle ; and if Charlemagne's donation 
of cities, most of which he never pessessed, and the 
remainder of which he governed as his own with the 
most jealous scrupulosity until the day of his death, it 
is difficult to perceive how the popes, by virtue of these 
gifts, can have any claim to either keys or banners. 

The pope, as an independent sovereign, has also a 
national cabinet. His privy council is the college of 
cardinals ; his minister of internal and foreign affairs 
is the cardinal secretary ; his viceroys are the legates 
and nuncios which he accredits to foreign powers ; his 
governors and lieutenant-governors are the Catholic 
bishops and archbishops, which are located in different 
parts of the world ; and his ministers of finance and 
police are the priests of different grades and orders. 
The civil offices of the papal monarchy have always 
been filled by members of the sacerdotal orders, and 
disposed of by the holy father for money. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has an impe- 
rial court. In the grades of this court he himself en- 
joys the first rank, being placed on an equality with 
God, and in some respects above him. The cardinals 
stand next to princes ; they wear a purple mantle, the 
emblem of royalty ; formerly they ranked in Chris- 
tendom equal with kings, preceded princes of blood, 
and sat on the right of kings, or near the throne. The 
generals of the Catholic orders, the abbots, archbish- 
ops, bishops and priests, consider their titles as royal, 



MONARCHY. 185 

and maintain that in consideration of them they should 
be exempted from the jurisdiction of civil magistrates. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has the power 
to issue absolute decrees. The papal bulls, apostolic 
briefs, and encyclical letters, are the exercise of sov- 
ereign power. From the despotic tone of these docu- 
ments, sometimes moderated by fear, but never from 
inclination, the pope evidently claims the right of inter- 
fering not only in the ecclesiastical, but also in the 
political affairs of all nations. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has a system 
of jurisprudence and administrative justice. The canon- 
ical law by which he governs his monarchy consists of 
the Concordantia Discordantium or Decretium Gratiani ; 
the Decratales Gregorii Noni ; the Liber JSextus, by 
Boniface VIII ; the Extravagantes Johannis XXII ; 
the Extravagantes Communes, and the Clementinas; 
all of which are known under the general name of Cor- 
pus Juris Canonica ; and all except the Extravagantes 
have the full authority of ''law. The papal system of 
administrative justice consists of a chief court, a civil 
court, and an apostolical court. The apostolical court 
regulates the pope's domains and collects the taxes. 
The members of the court are always bishops, and the 
presiding officer is generally a cardinal. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has exercised 
the governmental prerogative of coining money. The 
papal coins have various devices. They all have the 
cross-keys ; most of them the triple crown ; and some 
of them are inscribed with the word Dominus. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has always 

maintained, when possible, an army and a navy. Pope 
16* 



186 THE PAPAL 

Clement VIII. elected in 1523, raised an army of regu- 
lars and volunteers of thirty thousand foot and three 
thousand cavalry. Pope Leo IX. commanded an army 
consisting of Italian volunteers, several bands of rob- 
bers, and seven hundred Suabians. Pope Alexander 
VI. at the head of a powerful army conquered Bo- 
logna, Ancona, Eavenna and Ferrara. After the re- 
turn of the pope to Rome from Avignon, in 1577, a 
standing army was formed consisting of cavalry and 
infantry. 

The papal military organizations have been of the 
most formidable description. The Dominican Knights, 
the Teutonic Knights, the Knights of St. John, and the 
Knight Templars, instituted for the defence and prop- 
agation of Catholicism by the force of arms, w T ere skil- 
fully organized and rigorously disciplined. They as- 
sumed the vows of celibacy, poverty and unconditional 
obedience. They were interdicted, by the terms of their 
charter, from acknowledging any protector but the 
pope, and were made independent of any other author- 
ity. Upon becoming initiated into their orders, the 
pope absolved them from all human obligations, and 
they were required to sunder all human ties. They 
enjoyed all the immunities and privileges of the religious 
orders ; and in conjunction with them formed a standing 
army of three hundred thousand men, fully equipped 
for war, exclusively devoted to the pope's interest, and 
ready at his call to serve him by land or sea. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has a national 
revenue. This revenue is domestic and foreign. From 
official reports the pope's domestic revenue, in 1853, 
amounted to 13,000,000 florins; his foreign revenue is" 



MONARCHY. 187 

not publicly known. In the dark ages half of the 
ecclesiastical revenues of Europe flowed into the church 
treasury at Kome ; but at present the various streams 
of wealth destined for the church, are diverted to con- 
venient localities, situated in different parts of the 
world, to be disbursed according to regulations pre- 
scribed by the holy father. As the subject is somewhat 
curious, we are tempted to inquire into some of the 
sources of the papal revenue. 

One source of the pope's revenue is the sale of indul- 
gences. St. Peter's Church, at Rome, which cost 
45,000,000 crowns, was chiefly built from the proceeds of 
this species of traffic. William Hogan furnishes some 
singular facts respecting this ingenious device, by which 
the church accommodates the wishes of the members 
in the commission of sin, to her pecuniary advantage. 
He says : 

11 They (the pope and the propagandi) resolved that 
indulgences should, in the future, be called scapulus, 
and thus piously enable all Catholic priests and bishops 
to swear on the Holy Evangelists that no indulgences 

were sold in the United States The scapula 

costs the purchaser one dollar. The priest who sells it 
tells him that in order to make it thoroughly efficacious, 
it is necessary that he should cause some masses to be 

said I may safely say that, on an average, 

every scapula sold in the United States costs at least 
five dollars." — Synopsis, pp. 176, 177. 

The number of Catholics in the world is computed, 
by Catholic authority, at 150,000,000. Some of the 
papal subjects would not, perhaps, purchase a scapula 
in a year, while others might purchase a hundred ; but 
at the moderate estimate of one scapula annually to 



188 THE PAPA!/ 

each Catholic, the pope would derive from this source 
an annual revenue of 750,000,000 dollars. The sale of 
the scapula would, of course, be in proportion to the 
wickedness of the church members ; the more virtuous 
they were the less would they be necessitated to con- 
tribute to the coffers of the church ; and as merchants 
and traders always scheme to create a demand for their 
goods, it is not reasonable that either the pope or his 
priests would encourage their Catholic subjects in con- 
duct that would render them of no value to them ; and 
that would injure the sale and lessen the demand of 
their articles of trade, by which their treasure and 
luxuries are so much augmented. 

Another source of the pope's revenue are the masses 
which the church requires to be said for the deliver- 
ance of the souls of deceased Catholics out of purga- 
tory. These masses were sold before the rebellion at 
fifty cents a piece ; whether they have since risen in 
value in proportion to other articles, I have not the 
means of ascertaining. What number of masses are 
requisite for conjuring a Cotholic layman's soul up from 
purgatory, I am not informed ; but there is a will of a 
priest recorded in Towsontown, Md.. which bequeaths 
to a brother priest the sum of one hundred dollars to 
pay for two hundred masses, " to be said for the bene- 
fit of his poor soul." If the church will not release the 
soul of a priest from purgatory for less than one hun- 
dred dollars, how much does she demand of a layman 
for a similar purpose ? It would seem that the sanctity 
of a priest ought enable her to get him out of the pur- 
gatorial fire, and release him from the clutches of the 
devil for a much less sum of money than would be 



MONARCHY. 189 

requisite for the same purpose in the case of an un- 
anointed layman. This traffic in the souls of dead 
men by the church, has been prosecuted in such an 
oppressive manner that her members have sometimes 
been provoked to remonstrate. I once knew of a 
young Catholic who charged his priest with having 
forged a will in order to swindle him out of a great 
portion of his maternal inheritance. The pretext on 
which this pious fraud was attempted to be based was 
a plea that the mother of the youth had bequeathed to 
the priest a house of hers, in payment, of a sufficient 
number of masses for the release of her soul from pur- 
gatory. The annual revenue derived by the pope for 
his service in opening the gates of purgatory to the 
devout must be prodigious ; but the secrecy with which 
it is veiled renders a reliable computation exceedingly 
difficult. If we consider the number of Catholics that 
are in the world, and the probable annual number of 
deaths that occur among them, and calculate the sum 
of money which would be necessary to deliver the 
average number that die yearly out of the flames of 
purgatory, we may form some conception of the vast- 
ness of this resource of papal revenue. Wars, pesti- 
lence, bereavements of friends, which are calamities to 
families and nations, are pecuniary advantages to the 
church; and in proportion to the mortality of her 
members, she has cause to rejoice over the improvement 
of her finances. 

Another source of the pope's revenue are the pro- 
ceeds derived from the sale of crosses, amulets, relics, 
pictures, beads, and articles made by monks and nuns. 
These articles of pious merchandise are blest by the 



190 THE PAPAL 

bishop, and sold sometimes privately, and sometimes at 
Catholic fairs. They are supposed bythe purchaser to 
insure him good luck, and to keep evil from his dwel- 
ling ; and although they are often an unsightly set of 
trumpery ; yet as they are consecrated by the bishop's 
blessing, which, however, rather depreciates their in- 
trinsic value, they are prized by the cajoled Catholics 
as exceeding in value either gold or gems. We have 
no data enabling us to calculate the amount of 
revenue derived by the pope from this source of in- 
come ; but we may be allowed to conclude from the 
fact that, as the church has availed herself of its ad- 
vantages in all countries and ages, it has proved ex- 
ceedingly remunerative. 

Another source of the papal revenue are the contri- 
butions extorted from laborers, female servants, and 
others of the industrial classes. I know of a servant 
girl who paid one dollar every autumn towards furnish- 
ing the church with winter fuel. What fuel costs the 
church, I do not know ; perhaps little or nothing. 
The number of Catholics in the United States are com- 
puted by Catholic authority to amount to 10,000,0000 ; 
and if each one contributes one dollar annually for the 
benefit he derives from the church furnaces, (and I am 
credibly informed he does), the pope receives from this 
source an annual income of 10,000,000 dollars. But 
this is not the only method by which the laboring 
classes are filched out of their honest gains by the holy 
mother. On the regular monthly pay-day of contract- 
ors for public works, and of mining, manufacturing and 
mechanical companies, the priest makes his appearance, 
and exacts a dollar a month from each of the faithful. 



MONARCHY. 191 

If there are non-Catholics among the employes, who 
hesitate to contribute the monthly donation, they are 
insulted, intimidated, and their life threatened to such 
a degree that they consider it prudent to yield to the 
demand, or seek employment elsewhere. This system 
of extortion is engineered among the workmen by some 
favorite of the Catholic priest, who makes it his busi- 
ness to see that he is not disappointed in getting 
his dollar a month. An engineer of this description, 
employed on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, in his 
avidity to accommodate the priesthood narrowly escaped 
being victimized by a secular sharper. A stranger, 
professing to be a Catholic priest, solicited in behalf of 
his necessities, his charity and influence. Promptly 
heading a subscription list with the generous sum of 
two dollars and fifty cents, he was soon enabled to exult 
in the subscription of a very respectable amount by his 
fellow workmen. The list was, in accordance with 
usage, handed to the cashier of the establishment ; but 
before any money was paid on its account it was dis- 
covered that the priest was a spurious one, and 
that the money he solicited was not intended for the 
treasury of the pope, but for the pocket of an uncon- 
secrated impostor. Catholic periodicals, with com- 
mendable regard to their patrons' interest, have fre- 
quently published instances in which pretended priests 
and monks have successfully gulled the faithful. When 
we consider the vast proportion of poor to rich Catho- 
lics in the world, it seems evident that this branch of 
the pope's financial machinery, by which he wins a dol- 
tar a month from each of the industrial classes of the 
Catholic church, must furnish his coffers with an 



192 THE PAPAL 

annual revenue exceeding that of any other government. 

Another source of the pope's revenue are alms col- 
lected by an order of lay mendicants. The church, in- 
structed by the practice of mendication among all na- 
tions and classes, at all periods of history, and under 
all circumstances, has been enabled to perfect a system 
of extraordinary comprehensiveness, sharpness and effi- 
ciency. Organ grinders, bead counters, children, mo- 
thers with babes in their arms, men without legs, the 
blind, the deaf, the cripple, any object that can touch 
the tender or religious sympathies of the community, 
are employed as beggars for the pope of Rome. This 
description of medicants sometimes openly solicit alms 
for the holy father, but at other times endeavor to 
conceal their mission under a mask of profound dissim- 
ulation. The eloquence of broken noses, distorted 
forms, mutilated limbs, and tattered garments, are 
made to plead with touching pathos in behalf of the 
papal monarch. The revenue which he derives from 
his numerous crowd of professional beggars, is one of 
the secrets of the Holy See; but from the liberality 
with which Catholics respond, from a sense of religious 
duty, and Protestants from prudential motives, it may 
reasonably be presumed that it is not inconsiderable. 

Another source of the pope's revenue is derived from 
his foreign possessions. These possessions consist of 
churches, monasteries, nunneries, mission houses, edifi- 
ces for schools, colleges, hospitals, asylums, private 
dwellings, tracts of land, and every other species of 
property. The papal foreign property is sometimes 
held in the name of the pope, sometimes in that of a 
priest, and sometimes in that of a corporation, real or 



Monarchy 193 

pretended. Every priest coming to the United States, 
in order that he may legally be qualified to hold prop- 
erty for the benefit of the church, is required to take 
the oath of allegiance, whether he considers it consistent 
or not with his ordination oath. ( See Hogan's Synop- 
sis, p. 36). In 1822 the pope claiming to be the pro- 
prietor of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia, leased it 
to a foreign priest, and sent him over to take charge of 
it. The trustees, and William Hogan, the recognized 
encumbent, refusing to obey the order of the pope's 
agents, a suit of ejectment was brought against them in 
the Supreme Court of Pensylvania. Judge Tilghman 
presided at the trial. He decided that the pope could 
legally hold no property in the United States, and sus- 
tained the action of the defendants. (See Hogan's 
Synopsis, pp. 113, 114). In a suit brought by the broth- 
ers of the order of Hermits of St. Augustine, against the 
county of Philadelphia, for the destruction of St. Augus- 
tine's Church by a mob of the American party, it was 
discovered that the alleged corporation was entirely 
spurious. The pretended corporators consisted of Mi- 
cheal Hurly, pastor of St. Augustine's Church at Phila- 
delphia, Prince Gallager, pastor at Bedford, Pa., Lewis 
de Barth, pastor of St. Mary's Church at Philadelphia, 
Patrick Henry, pastor at Coffee Run, Chester County, 
Pa., and J. B. Holland, pastor at Lancaster, Pa. So pro- 
foundly secret was the existence of this company kept, 
that no laymen or priest outside of the pretended cor- 
porators had ever heard of it before the trial, and as 
the public documents contained no enrolment of it in 
accordance with the requirement of law, it was pro- 
nounced entirely spurious and invalid. The value of 
17 



194 THE PAPAL 

the property held in the name of this pretended corpo- 
ration, in evasion of the laws of the United States, was 
computed at 5,000,000 dollars. Even in cities where 
the Catholic population is deemed numerically insigni- 
ficant, millions worth of property of which the inhab- 
itants have not the slightest conception is owned by 
the pope, under cover of fictitious names or otherwise. 
(See Hogan's Auric. Confess., vol. 2, p. 204, &c). 
Whenever the church has obtained sufficient power she 
has made a bequest to the coffers of the church a con- 
dition to the validity of a w r ill ; and where she has 
failed to acquire this power, she has still exacted a com- 
pliance with it from her members, under pain of her 
penalties. Splendid palaces and gorgeous church edi- 
fices alone are not adequate to satisfy the cravings of 
her avarice, she must have lands and every species of 
wealth. Wherever her priests have effected a pious 
entering wedge in a block of buildings, by means of a 
church or an asylum, they must scheme to work out the 
other proprietors, and monopolize the whole themselves. 
Their covetous eye is always fixed on some magnificent 
farm, and their active speculation, or deeper craft, has 
enabled them to become in possession of very desirable 
tracts of land. I know of a priest who netted ten 
thousand dollars by a single land speculation. The 
priests, by means of the confessional, become accurately 
acquainted with all secrets, with every contemplative 
movement in the general or State government, or in 
financial corporations, that can effect the market value 
of lands or stocks ; and it would be exceedingly aston- 
ishing if, with this advantage, their speculations should 
not invariably be successful. In possession of such 



MONARCHY. 195" 

means, the church has in every age accumulated pro- 
digious wealth. Before the secularization of the monas- 
tic property in Europe, the ecclesiastical domains and 
revenues were so great that the benefices were bestowed 
by kings on royal heirs. In California and Mexico, 
previous to the revolution that caused the sequestra- 
tion of the church domains, her mission-houses owned 
nearly all the territory of the State. In China, even at 
this day, there are three bishoprics endowed by the 
crown of Portugal, which hold seven provinces ; and 
the bishops of the Apostolic Vicars hold several others. 
The possessions of the Catholic priests render them the 
wealthiest citizens of the country in which they reside ; 
and as no heir can inherit their estates, each succeeding 
generation is destined to see them augmented until 
every bishopric, however poor now, has become a princely 
domain, with a princely revenue, governed by a titled 
priest. 

Every Catholic edifice in the world, and every de- 
scription of property held by a priest, belongs to the 
pope ; the real title, as lord paramount, being vested 
in him, whatever ostensible title policy or necessity 
may have induced the church to adopt. Over these 
possessions he exercises supreme, despotic dominion, 
sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly. 

We have now enumerated some of the sources of the 
pope's revenue ; but we have mentioned but a few of 
them. In fact the rites of the Catholic church partake 
so plainly of a financial character, that they seem to 
have been instituted for purposes of ecclesiastical rev- 
enue. With a fiscal system principally based on them, 
extending over Christendom, rigorous in its exactions 



196 * THE PAPAL 

on all ciasses, the church unites a rapacity so unprin- 
cipled, measures so oppressive and unjustifiable, deeds 
so horrible and arrogations so presumptuous, that were 
it not for her religious aspect she might be mistaken for 
the demon of avarice. While rolling in opulence and 
luxury, she stoops to the basest trickery to filch from 
laborers and servant girls their wages; to disinherit 
lawful heirs ; taking advantage of ignorance and su- 
perstition, and pretending to regulate the condition of 
the soul in the eternal world. The immense sum of 
gold which she has, by means of her fiscal system, been 
piling up in her coffers for ages, has had no visible out- 
let except what has been expended in the support of 
her officials, and on bribery, corruption, and political 
intrigue. The policy that dictates the accumulation 
and reservation of this vast amount of treasure, must 
contemplate the undertaking of some gigantic enter- 
prise ; and the world may yet be startled from its 
slumber by the martial assertion of the church to her 
pretensions of supreme dominion over the world ; and 
by the fact that she is better organized for war, and 
better furnished with its sinews than any other power. 

As an independent sovereign the pope has oaths of 
allegiance which he prescribes to such of his subjects 
as he judges proper. According to the authority of 
"William Hogan, the consecration oath of the Jesuistical 
bishops is as follows : 

" Therefore, to the utmost of my power I shall and 
" will defend this doctrine, and his holiness's rights and 
11 customs against all usurpers, and heretical and Pro- 
" testant authority whatsoever ; especially against the 
" new pretended authority of the Church of England, 



MONARCHY, 197 

" and all adherents, in regard that they and she be 
" usurpal and heretical, opposing the true mother church 
" of Rome. I do renounce and disown my allegiance 
" as due to any heretical king, prince, or State named 
" Protestant, or of obedience to any of their inferior 
" magistrates or officers. I do further declare the doc- 
" trine of the Church of England, and of Calvinists, 
11 Huguenots, and of the other named Potestants to be 
" damnable, and they themselves are damned, and to be 
." damned, that will not forsake them. I do further de- 
" clare that I will help, assist, advise all wherever I 
" shall be, in England, Scotland, Ireland, or in any 
" other kingdom I shall come to, and do my best to ex- 
11 tirpate the heretical Protestant doctrines, and destroy 
" all their pretending powers, regal or otherwise. I 
" do further promise and declare, that notwithstanding 
" I am dispensed with, to assume any other religion 
11 heretical for the propagation of the mother church's 
" interest, to keep secret and private all her agent's 
" councils from time to time, as they entrust me, and 
" not to divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writ- 
" ing, or circumstance whatever, but to execute all 
11 that shall be proposed, .given in charge, or discovered 
" unto me, by you my ghostly father, or by any of his 
11 sacred convents. All which I, A. B. do swear by the 
" blessed Trinity, and blessed Sacraments which I am 
" now to receive, to perform, and on my part to keep 
" inviolably, and do call all the heavenly and glorious 
" hosts to witness these my real intentions to keep this 
" my oath." 

The consecration oath of a Catholic bishop is as fol- 
lows : 

"I do solemnly swear on the Holy Evangelists, and 
" before Almighty God, to defend the domains of St. 
"Peter against every aggressor ; to preserve* augment 
" and extend the rights, honors, and privileges of the 
" Lord Pope and his successors ; to observe, and with all 
17* 



198 THE PAPAL 

" my might to enforce his decrees, ordinances, reserva- 
tions, provisions, and all dispositions whatsoever; 
" to persecute and combat, to the last extremity 
"heretics and schismatics, and all who will not pay 
" the sovereign Pope all the obedience which he shall 
"require." 

The remainder of this oath is similar to the foregoing 
Jesuistical oath. 

The priests cf Maynooth, who form the vast majority 
of Catholic priests in this country, assume the follow- 
ing obligation to the church : 

" I, A. B., do declare not to act or conduct any mat- 
" ter or thing prejudicial to her, in her sacred orders, 
11 doctrines, tenets, or commands, without leave of its 
*' supreme power, or its authority under her appoint- 
" ment ; being so permitted, then to act, and further 
" her interests, more than my own earthly good and 
" earthly pleasures ; as she and her head, His Holiness 
" and his successors, have, or ought to have, the su- 
" premacy over all kings, princes, estates, or powers 
"whatsoever, either to deprive them of their crowns, 
" or governments, or to set up others in lieu thereof, 
" they dissenting from the mother chuich and her com- 
"mands." 

It is said that by rescript of Pope Pius VII., in 
1818, the clause relating to " heretics" in the bishop's 
oath, is omitted by the bishops subject to the British 
crown. It is also omitted in the following oath, pub- 
lished by the Nashville American Union, April 6, 1856 : 

" I, N., elect of the church N., shall be from this 
" hour henceforward obedient to Blessed Peter the 
" Apostle, and to the holy Roman Catholic Church, and 
" to the most blessed father Pope N., and to his succes- 
" sors canonically chosen. I shall assist them to retain 
" and defend, against any man whatever, the Roman 



MONARCHY. 199 

" Popedom, without prejudice to my rank ; and snail 
" take care to preserve, defend and promote the rights, 
" honors, privileges, and authority of the holy Koman 
" Church, of the Pope, and his successors aforesaid. 
" With my whole strength I shall observe, and cause to 
" be observed by others, the rules of the Holy Fathers, 
11 the decrees, ordinances, or dispositions and mandates 
" of the Apostolic See." 

The next clause declares the willingness of the 
bishop to attend synods, give an account to the pope of 
every thing appertaining to the church and his flock, 
and obey such apostolic mandate as he shall receive. 
The oath concludes thus : 

" I shall not sell, nor give away, nor mortgage, 
" enfeoff anew, nor in any way alienate the possessions 
" belonging to my table, without the leave of the Eo- 
" man Pontiff. And should I proceed to any alienation 
" of them, I am willing to contract, by the very fact, 
" the penalties specified in the constitutions published 
"- on this subject." 

The Sanfideste's oath, exacted by Pope Gregory of 
his military forces, w T as as follows : 

" I swear to elevate the altar and the throne upon the 
" infamous Liberals, and to exterminate them without 
" pity for the cries of their children, or the tears of 
" their old men." 

William Hogan, speaking of the instructions given him 
previous to his embarkation for America, by his bishop, 
describes it as follows : 

" Let it be your first duty to extirpate heretics, but 
be cautious as to the manner of doing it. Do nothing 
without consulting the bishop of the diocese in which 
you may be located, and if there be no bishop there, 



200 THE PAPAL 

advise with, the metropolitan bishop. He has instruc- 
tions from Borne, and he understands the character of 
the people. Be sure not to permit the members of the 
holy church who may be under your charge to read the 
Bible. It is the source of all heresy. Wherever you 
see an opportunity of building a church, make it 
known to your bishop. Let the land be purchased for 
the Pope, and his successors in office. Never yield or 
give up the divine right which the head of the church 
has, by virtue of the keys, to the command of North 
America, as well as every other country. The confes- 
sional will enable you to know the people by degrees ; 
with the aid of that holy tribunal, and the bishops, who 
are guided by the spirit of God, we may expect at no 
distant day, to bring over North America to our holy 
church." — Synopsis, pp. 110, 111. 

The atrocious doctrine that it is proper to equivocate, 
to dissimulate, and to deceive by mental reservations, 
is boldly defended by the highest authorities of the 
Catholic church. Dens says : " Notwithstanding it is 
not lawful to lie, or to feign what is not, however, it is 
lawful to dissemble what is, or to cover the truth with 
words, or other ambiguous or doubtful signs, for a just 
cause, and when there is not a necessity of confessing." — ■ 
(Theol., vol. 2, p. 116). Again, he says: " The Vicar 
of God, in the place of God, remits to man the debt of 
a plighted promise." — {lb., 4 : 134, 135). St. Liqnori 
says : " It is certain, and a common opinion among all 
divines, that for a just cause it is lawful to use equivo- 
cation, and to confirm it with an oath." — (Less. 1, 2, ch. 
41, n. 47). 

The obligation of all oaths of allegiance in conflict 
with the papal clerical oaths, or the interests of the 
pope, are declared by the universal authority of the 



MONARCHY. 201 

church to be null and void. Dens says : " All the faith- 
ful, also bishops and patriarchs, are bound to obey the 
Roman pontiff. The pope hath also not only directive, 
but coactive power over the faithful." — (De Eccles. No. 
94, p. 439). Pope Urban, elected in 1087, says : " Sub- 
jects are not bound to observe the fealty which they 
swear to a Christian prince, who withstands God and 
the saints, and condemns the precepts." — (Pithon, p. 
260). Pope Gregory IX says : " The fealty which 
subjects have sworn to a Christian king, who opposes 
God and his saints, they are not bound by any author- 
ity to perform." — Decret., vol. 1, p. 648). Again he 
says : " An oath contrary to the utility of the church 
is not to be observed."— Vol. 2, p. 358.) And again he 
asserts : " You are not bound by an oath of this 
kind, but on the contrary you are freely bid Good-speed 
in standing against kings for the rights and honors of 
that very church, and even in legislatively defending 
your own peculiar privileges." — Vol. 2.. p. 360). Bron- 
son, speaking of the church says : " As the guardian and 
judge of law she must have power to take cognizance of 
the State, and to judge whether or not it does conform 
to the condition and requirement of its trust, and to 
pronounce sentence accordingly."— (Rev. Jan. 1854). 
Pope Pius V., in relation to Queen Elizabeth, said : 
" We do declare her to be deprived of her pretended 
right to the kingdom, and of all dominion whatsoever ; 
and also the subjects sworn to her to be forever dis- 
solved from any such oath." Pope Innocent III., 
elected in 1198, "Freed all that were bound to those who 
had fallen into heresy, from all fealty, homage, and obe- 
dience." — (Pithon, p. 241). Bronson says : " Rome 
17 



202 THE PAPAL 

divided her British territory into dioceses, and sends 
cardinals to London, notwithstanding the laws that 
England shall not thus be divided." — Kev., April, 
1854). The trustees of the church of St. Louis, at 
Buffalo, N. Y., having refused to comply with the 
canons of the Council of Trent in violating the trust 
laws of the* State of New York, the bishop proceeded 
to excommunicate them. In consequence of this con- 
duct, the legislature of 1855 passed an act denning 
ecclesiastical tenure. In a letter of Bishop Hughes, 
dated March 28th, 1855, and published in the Free- 
man s Journal, respecting this law, he says : " Now in 
this it seems to meddle with our religion, as well as our 
civil rights ; and we shall find twenty ways outside the 
intricate web of its prohibitions for doing, and doing 
more largely still, the very thing it wishes us not to 
do." 

A curious and very objectionable feature of the 
papal monarchy is, a system of searching espionage 
which it attempts to establish over society. In addi- 
tion to the confessors and spiritual guides by which the 
pope seeks to discover the thoughts, and direct the con- 
duct of his Catholic subjects, he employs a set of men 
and women who, in the capacity of servants scrutinize 
the domestic affairs of non-Catholics, mark their con- 
versation, and communicate all important facts through 
their superior, to him at Eome. As an illustration of 
the disrespectful inquisitiveness, and base incivility of 
this department of the papal government, we submit 
the following facts furnished by William Hogan : 

" Soon after my arrival in Philadelphia," says he, "I 
became acqainted with a Protestant family. I had the 



MONARCHY. 203 

pleasure of dining occasionally with them, and could 
not help noticing a seemingly delicate young man, who 
waited at the table Not long after this a mes- 
senger called at my room to say that Theodore was 
taken ill,, and wished to see me. I was then officiating 
a? a Romish priest, and calling to see him was shown 
Tip stairs to a garret room, into which, after a loud rap, 

and announcement of my name, I was admitted 

He deliberately turned out of his bed, locked the door, 
and very respectfully handed me a chair, and asked me 
to sit down as he had something very important to tell 

me ' Sir, you have taken me for a young man, 

but you are mistaken ; I am a girl, but not so young as 
I appeared in my boy's dress. I sent for you because I 
want to get a character, and confess to you before I 
leave the city.' I answered, ' You must explain your- 
self more fully before you can do either.' I moved my 
chair farther from the bed, and tightened my grasp on 
a sword-cane which I carried in my hand. ' Feel no 
alarm,' said the now young woman, ' I am armed as 
well as you are,' taking from under her jacket an ele- 
gant poignard. ' I will not hurt you. I am a lay sis- 
ter belonging to the order of Jesuists in Stonyhurst, 
England, and wear this dagger to protect myself. 
There was no longer any mystery in the matter. I 
knew now where I was, and the character of the being 
that stood before me. I discovered from her that she 
had arrived in New Orleans some time previous, with 
all due recommendation to the priests and nuns of that 

city They received her with all due caution 

as far as could be seen by the public ; but privately in 
the warmest manner. Jesuists are active and diligent 
in the discharge of duties to their superiors., and of 
course this lay sister, who was chosen from among many 
for her zeal and craft, lost no time in entering on her 
mission. The Sisters of Charity took immediate charge 
of her, recommended her as a chambermaid to one of 
the most respectable Protestant families in that city, 
and having clothed her in an appropriate dress, she en- 



204 THE PAPAL 

tered on lier employment So great a 

favorite did she become in the family, that in a short 
time she became acquainted with all the circumstances 
and secrets, from those of the father to those of the 
smallest child. 

" According to the custom universally in vogue, she 
kept notes of every circumstance which may tend to 
elucidate the character of the family, never carrying 
them about her, but depositing them with the mother 

abbess especially deputed to take charge of them 

Thus did this lay sister continue to go from place to 
place, from family to family, until she became better 
acquainted with the politics, the pecuniary means, re- 
ligious opinions, and whether favorable or not to the 
propagation of popery in this country, than even the 

very individuls with whom she associated This 

lay sistr, this excellent chambermaid, or lay Jesuist sis- 
ter, wished to come North to a better climate 

Americans can be gulled. The /Sisters of Charity have al- 
ways in readiness some friend to supply them with the 
means of performing corporeal acts of mercy. This 
friend went around to the American families where this 
chambermaid had lived from time to time, told them 
she wanted to come as far as Baltimore, that it was a 
pity to have her travel as a steerage passenger ; a per- 
son of her virtue and correct deportment should not be 
placed in a situation where she might be liable to insult 

and rude treatment A handsome purse was 

soon made up, a cabin passage was engaged, and the 
young ladies on whom she waited made her presents of 
every article of dress necessary for her comfort and 
convenience. She was the depository of all their love 
stories ; she knew the names of their lovers, . . . and 
if there were secrets among them they were known to 
her ; and, having made herself acquainted with the 
secrets of New Orleans, she arrived in Baltimore. . . . 
She took possession of a place as soon as convenient, 
and spent several months in that city. . . . Having 
now become acquainted with the secret circumstances of 



MONARCHY. 205 

almost every Protestant family of note in Baltimore, 
and made her report to the mother abbess of the nun- 
nery of her order in that city, she returned to the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and after advising with the mother ab- 
bess of the convent, she determined to change her ap- 
parent character and apparel. 

" By advice of this venerable lady and holy prioress, 
on whom many of the wives of our national represent- 
atives, and even grave senators, looked as an example 
of piety and chastity, she cut her hair, dressed her in a 
smart looking waiter's jacket and trowsers, and with the 
best recommendations for intelligence and capacity, ap- 
plied for a situation as Waiter in Gadsby's Hotel, in 
Washington city. This smart and tidy looking young 

man got instant employment Those senators 

on whom he waited, not suspecting that he had the or- 
dinary curiosity of servants in general, were entirely 
thrown off their guard, and in their conversations with 
one another seemed to forget their usual caution. Such, 
in» short, was their confidence in him, that their most 
important papers and letters were left loose upon the 
table, satisfied by saying, as they went out : ' Theodore, 
take care of my room and papers.' .... Now it was 
known whether Henry Clay was a gambler ; whether 
Daniel Webster was a libertine ; whether John C. Cal- 
houn was an honest but credulous man In fact 

this lay sister in male uniform, but a waiter in Gadsby's 
Hotel, was enabled to give more correct information of 
the actual state of things in this country, through the 
general of the Jesuist order in Rome, than the whole 
corpse of diplomats from foreign countries then residing 

at our seat of government 'I want a written 

character from you. You must state in it that I have 
complied with my duty, and as it is necessary that I 
should wear a cap for a while, you must say that you 
visited me in my sick room, that I confessed to you, re- 
ceived the viaticum, and had just recovered from a vio- 
lent fever. My business is not done yet. I must go 
to New York, where the Sisters of Charity will find a 
17* 



206 THE PAPAL 

place for me as a waiting maid." — Auricular Confes- 
sion, volume 2 : pp. 99-108. 

Through the instrumentality of this execrable sys- 
tem of espionage, the pope becomes acquainted with 
the character, intentions, and acts of every important 
private and public personage ; with the nature and ob- 
ject of every secret society; with the private inten- 
tions of every government ; with the incipiency and 
progress of every seditious and treasonable project ; and 
is prepared at all times, by the accuracy and compre- 
hensiveness of his information, to instruct his generals 
in the actual state of affairs existing in any part of the 
world, and to direct their conduct in the advancement 
of his interest, by the most prudent and enlightened 
council. 



MONARCHY. 207 



TEE PAPAL MONARCHY. 

o 

SECTION TWO. 

The Popes Direct Authority — His Opposition to Mar- 
riage — To Slavery — His Claim to Temporal Power on 
the forged Decretal Letter of Constantine — On the Fic- 
titious Gift of Pepin — On the Pretended Donation of 
Charlemagne — on the Disputed Bequest of Matilda? 
Duchess of Tuscany — The Title of Pope a Usurpa- 
tion — The Papal Artful Policy — The State of Italy 
under the Papal Government. 

"We have now sketched the pope's temporal mon- 
archy, which has its seat in Borne, and its subjects in 
every part of the world. He claims to be invested by 
divine right with supreme sovereignty over earth, hea- 
ven and hell. To question the legitimacy of this claim 
is condemned, and has been punished as blasphemous 
by his authority. Joseph Wolf, of Halle, a Jew who 
had been converted to the Catholic faith, was, while 
studying divinity at the Seminarium Romanum, impris- 
oned for blasphemy for having expressed a doubt of the 
pope's infallibility. Fra Paola, who had expressed in a 
private letter that so far from coveting the dignities of 
Rome he held them in abomination, and who had advo- 
cated liberty in a dispute which had occurred between 
the pope and the Venitian government, was summoned 
to Borne to answer for his criminal assertions and con- 



208 THE PAPAL 

duct ; and though acquitted of the allegations preferred 
against him, narrowly escaped the assassin's dagger. 

But the " More than God," the Pope, is a very jeal- 
ous "more than God." He allows no master to stand 
between him and his subjects. His authority over mind 
and body must be direct, and all influences or institu- 
tions that obstruct it must be annihilated. Hence Car- 
dinal Ballarmine, the distinguished papal controvesial- 
ist, who was so devout a Catholic that when he died he 
bequeathed one half of his soul to Jesus Christ and the 
other half to the Virgin Mary, provoked the censure of 
the holy father by asserting in a publication that the 
pope's influence in temporal matters was not direct but 
indirect. As husbands obstruct the direct influence of 
popes on wives, parents on children, and friends on 
friends, he would nullify the conjugal, parental, filial 
and social relations. Hence in a canon of the Council 
of Trent, he pronounces a curse on all who say that 
marriage is preferable to celibacy. Should the prompt- 
ing of the social instincts be too strong to be repressed 
by the terrors of canonical anathemas, and should they 
in natural indifference to them still create the bonds, 
connections, and institutions of friendship and families, 
he has a clerical machinery skilfully adapted to moder- 
ate their influences and reciprocities, and to maintain 
the predominence of his direct authority. Michelet, 
the philosophical historian and celebrated controversial- 
ist, in a work entitled " Priests, Women and Children," 
has explained the ingenious method by which this ob- 
ject is effected. By separating as much as possible the 
husband from the wife, and the children from their pa- 
rents, the direct papal influence, through the priest, is 



MONARCHY. 209 

exerted on the isolated husband abroad, on the lonely 
wife at home, and the defenceless children in nunnery 
schools and Catholic asylums. Examples of a similar 
policy are portrayed by Eugene Sue, a Catholic, in his 
"Wandering Jew." The logical consequence of the 
dogma of the pope's direct authority has, in fact, made 
the Catholic church a " free love" institution. Chas- 
tity and marriage she tolerates because she cannot do 
otherwise ; but in the lives of her monks, her priests, 
her popes, and her saints, she as practically ignores as 
she consistently hates them. 

The jealous claim of the pope to a direct influence on 
the mind of his subjects, has unavoidably made the 
church an inveterate enemy of human slavery. The 
pope hates slavery, not because he wishes men free, 
but because he wishes to exercise a direct authority 
over their minds. The master nullifies the pope's influ- 
ence on the slave, and therefore he wishes him removed. 
No influence is equal to that of a master. The whip 
he holds over the back of his slave, and the power he 
has over his life, annihilates all other influences. Hence 
the Catholic church has always been opposed to slavery. 
Guizot remarks, respecting feudal slavery : "It cannot 
be denied, however, that the church has used its influ- 
ence to restrain it ; the clergy in general, and especially 
several popes, enforced the manumission of slaves as a 
duty incumbent on laymen, and loudly enveighed 
against keeping Christians in bondage." — (Gen. Hist., 
Lect. VI., p. 132). Pope Pius II., in 1462, in a letter 
addressed to the bishops of Kubi ; Pope Paul III., in 
1537, in his apostolic letter to the cardinal bishops of 

Toledo ;■ Pope Urban VII., in 1590, in an apostolic Jetter 
18* 



210 THE PAPAL 

to the Collector Jurium of the apostolic churches of Por- 
tugal ; Pope Benedict XIV., in 1731, in his apostolic 
letter to the clergy of Brazil ; and Pope Pius VII., in 
his official address to his clergy, all denounced the 
traffic in blacks, and demanded that every species of 
slavery should cease among Christians. Pope Gregory, 
in his apostolic letter of 1839 says : " We, then, by 
virtue of our apostolic authority, censure all the afore- 
said practices as unworthy the Christian name, and by 
that same authority we strictly prohibit and interdict 
any ecclesiastic or layman from presuming to uphold, 
under any pretext or color whatever, that same traffic 
in blacks, as if it were lawful in its nature, or other- 
wise to preach, or in any way whatever publicly or 
privately to teach in opposition to these things which 
we have made the subject of our admonition in this our 
apostolic letter." We are aware that African slavery 
owes its origin to a Catholic priest, who, perceiving that 
the demand for laborers in the W T est India was likely 
to subject the Indians to bondage, suggested as a less 
wrong that negroes should be purchased of the Portu- 
guese settlements in Africa, and held as slaves for life ; 
but whatever were his private opinions respecting the 
propriety of African slavery, his church has never re- 
cognized it as legal. 

The perversion of public opinion by the Catholic 
church, and the practical beguilement of her warmest 
friends, effected by the consummate craft with which 
she plots to achieve her objects, have presented fresh 
evidence to the world in the singular fact, that while 
she is radically the most efficient abolition society that 
ever was projected, and that while in her official man- 



MONARCHY, 211 

dates to tlie clergy she lias invariably denounced tbe 
traffic in human beings as infamous, yet has she com- 
manded the homage of the American slave-holder for 
her friendly disposition towards the Southern institu- 
tion ; and induced her members, while using them as 
instruments in the accomplishment of her projects for 
the abolishment of slavery, to hate, denounce, and to 
anathematize the North for its abolition proclivities. 

But there were other considerations which probably 
stimulated the humanity of the church in her labors for 
the abolition of slavery. The condition of the slave 
precludes the possibility of his serving her in the capa- 
city of a spy on the opinions and conduct of his master ; 
and as he received no wages she could not assess him 
for her benefit. The perfection of the pope's system of 
espionage, and the augmentation of his revenue, were 
both connected with the slave's disenthralment. These 
advantages could not be undesirable to the church, and 
the avidity with which she has improved them, shows 
how clearly she foresaw them. Through accident or 
Jesuistical craft, it has happened, that colored servants 
have been supplanted to an incredible extent by white 
Catholic servants, who as serviceable spies far excel 
them. I regret not the abolishment of the revolting 
traffic in human beings, nor do I censure the Catholic 
church for the important aid she rendered in its achieve- 
ment ; but I hope American freemen will not want the 
vigilance to prevent her from improving the new con- 
dition of things, so much to her advantage as to endan- 
ger the liberty of the country. 

But the " Lord God, the Pope," who claims by divine 
right to be lord paramount of the world, has unwarily 



212 THE PAPAL 

invalidated Lis title even to the "patrimony of St. Pe- 
ter," by an attempt to establish it by forged decretal 
letters. Forgeries are criminal acts, and punished by 
all nations as high misdemeanors. They are prejudi- 
cial to the ground of action of a claimant, and as evi- 
dent proof of an intent to swindle, as they are of a 
base and contemptible origin. When successful, they 
may overhang the mind for a while, as clouds in a dead 
still atmosphere do the earth; but at the slightest 
breeze they are dissipated, and the superstructure based 
upon them, though gorgeous as the setting sun, will, 
like its areal enchantment, break up and dissolve away. 
Yet of such base and flimsy material are the pope's 
claim to temporal power constructed. Innumerable 
bulls, decretals, receipts, briefs, canons, letters, inter- 
dicts, and other documents, have been forged, altered 
and interpolated by the holy brotherhood, to furnish a 
legal basis for the pope's temporal power. These docu- 
ments were prepared between the third and ninth cen- 
turies, and carefully treasured up in the papal archives, 
ready for use as occasion might require. One of the 
boldest of these pious forgeries is the decretal letter at- 
tributed to Constantine the Great, forged probably by 
Benedict of Mentz, in the ninth century. It reads as 
follows : 

11 We attribute to the Chair of St. Peter all imperial 
dignity, and power and glory. We give to Pope Syl- 
vester, and to his successors, our palace of Lateran, one 
of the finest in the world ; we give to him our crown, 
our mitre, our diadem, all our imperial vestments. We 
give to the Holy Pontiff as a free gift the city of Kome, 
and all the cities of Western Italy, as well as all the 
cities of other countries. To make room for him we 



MONARCHY. 213 

abdicate our authority over these provinces, transferr- 
ing the seat of our empire to Byzantium, since it is not 
just that a temporal emperor shall retain any power 
where God has set the head of his church." 

The reason assigned for the bestowal of this magnifi- 
cent donation was gratitude on the part of Constantine, 
for having been cured of leprosy through the adminis- 
tration of the rite of baptism at the hands of Pope 
Sylvester. But it is historically established that Con- 
stantine did not receive the rite of baptism until a 
]ate hour in his last sickness ; that when he did receive 
it, it did not cure his malady ; and that the rite was ad- 
ministered, not by the Pope of Rome, but by an Arian 
bishop. Whatever donations of crowns, kingdoms and 
cities were bestowed on the bishop who officiated on the 
occasion, were unquestionably granted to a heretical 
sectary ; and if Rome does not wish to confess herself 
an Arian, she cannot consistently claim their gifts. 
But even had the case been otherwise, how could Con- 
stantine bestow on the pope all the cities of Western 
Italy, and of all other countries, when he did not pos- 
sess them himself ? As the gift of a donor is worthless 
unless he has an actual right in what he bestows, the 
pretensions of the pope on the ground of Constantine's 
gift, are an actual nullification of all his claims to tem- 
poral sovereignty. It is generally conceded that Con- 
stantine allowed the pope the use of some buildings in 
Rome ; but it is denied that he ever invested him with 
a title to them as lord paramount. This limited indul- 
gence was the pope's precedent for holding real estate, 
and formed the basis of his claim to all the crowns and 
kingdoms Of the world. But like the rapacious dog, 



214 THE PAPAL 

who, with his mouth full of meat, lost all he had by 
snapping at the shadow of more in a river, the pope, 
by attempting through forged documents to grasp at all 
the world, has lost his title to any part of it. 

Although the decretal letter attributed to Constan- 
tine was palpably spurious, yet such was the general 
ignorance of the times, the respect for the sanctity and 
infallibility of the pope, and the danger of provoking 
the wrath of the inquisition by questioning a dogma of 
the church, that its validity was not called into ques- 
tion. At length, however, in a legal proceedings of a 
monastery at Sabine, its fraudulent character was at- 
tempted to be substantiated. The bold criticisms of 
Laurentius Valla, in the fifteenth century, gave the 
first decisive blow to its credibility, and in the succeed- 
ing age it sunk into public contempt, beneath the scorn 
of historians, the ridicule of poets, and the concessions 
of theologians. But notwithstanding its universally 
acknowledged spurious character, such is the reluctance 
of the popes to yield a point, that it still continues to 
remain a portion of the canon law of the holy Catholic 
church. 

The alleged gift of Pepin to the Roman See forms 
another pretext by which the popes have endeavored 
to lay a basis for their claim to the right of temporal 
sovereignty. Pope Gregory excited a rebellion against 
the authority of the Emperor Leo III., in the course of 
which the Italian Exarcate was dismembered from the 
empire. It was decided by the victors that the gov- 
ernment should be administered by two Consuls, in 
which the pope should participate, not in a secular, but 
in a paternal capacity. For a monarch claiming the 



MONARCHY. 215 

world as a just inheritance, and all princes and govern- 
ors as his menials, to accept such a humble concession 
to his unlimited authority, and such an ambiguous 
office, is the most remarkable instance on record of a 
monarchial condescension. He, however, not only ac- 
cepted it, but what is still more surprising, accepted it 
with eagerness and gratitude ; and even intrigued to 
obtain it. But during the administration of Pope 
Stephen II. the victorious sword of the Lombards 
wrung the Exercate from the Consular government of 
Rome. The pope, to retrieve his fortunes applied to 
Pepin, Mayor of France, who, responding with an 
adequate force, reconquered the Exercate, and expelled 
the barbarians. Grateful for the martial services of 
Pepin, the pope solicited of the civil authority the pri- 
vilege of appointing him Patriarch of Rome, a title 
which was borne by the former Exarchs ; and by this 
innocent method initiated a precedent which soon 
ripened into a prerogative of appointing civil magis- 
trates. Having thus advanced the interests of the 
Holy See by complimenting its deliverer, he next ven- 
tured to anoint his head with oil, in hopes that in thus 
imitating the example of Samuel in anointing kings, 
future popes might have a pretext for usurping his pre- 
rogatives in acknowledging their right to reign. Pepin, 
who ruled france under the title of Mayor, wished to 
imprison the heir to the throne and usurp the govern- 
ment, and the pope gave him his opinion that it was 
best for him to do so. In grateful consideration of 
these extraordinary favors, it is alleged by the popes 
that Pepin bestowed the conquered domains, consisting 
of the Exercate and the Pentopolis (five cities) on the 



216 THE PAPAL 

See of Rome, as supreme absolute lord. It is, never- 
theless, certain, that Pepin's donations to the Holy See 
were on condition of its vassalage to the Frank ish power, 
and that during his life he exercised absolute sovereignty 
over Rome, and over all his conquests, and allowed no 
pope to be either elected or consecrated without his 
permission. 

The right of the monarch of the world to temporal 
power, which was first founded upon the usurpation of 
Constantine, and next upon the conquests of Pepin, 
was annihilated by the conquests of the Lombards. 
Desiderious, their king, wrested the Exercate from 
Rome; and wishing to subjugate Charlemagne under 
his authority, proposed to Pope Adrian I. that he should 
excite the subjects of that prince to rebellion, de- 
clare him a usurper, and crown his nephews in his 
place. Adrian listened to these overtures with seeming 
friendship, but with malignant delight, and secretly 
communicating their substance to Charlemagne, the 
sword of the latter was immediately drawn in behalf of 
the church ; the pope revenged ; Desiderius imprisoned 
for life in a monastery ; and all Italy, except the Duchy 
of Benevento and the lower Italian republics, were re- 
conquered. Upon this signal success of his arms, it is 
alleged by the popes that the blood-stained warrior, 
to purchase masses for the benefit of his soul, confirmed 
the Holy See in the absolute possession of the former 
grants of Pepin. The only copy ever known of these 
pretended donations is one received by Cancio, the 
pope's chamberlain, in the twelfth century. The unde- 
niable historical fact that Charlemagne asserted, and 
maintained during his whole life, a jealous and inalian- 



MONAPwCHY. 217 

able right to Rome, and to every other portion of his 
dominions, casts a dark shade of suspicion upon the 
genuineness of these documents. Even were they au- 
thenticated, yet as the right of a monarch to annul is 
equal to his right to grant, and as his practice is the 
evidence of what he surrenders or annuls, the exclu- 
sive sovereignty which Charlemagne maintained over 
his Italian conquests, until the day of his death, is a 
complete nullification of any grant that he had made 
to the pope, and positive proof that any right or title 
to Home, or to temporal power, constructed upon them 
by the holy fathers, is as invalid, futile and ludicrous, 
as if they were based on a grant from the man in the 
moon ; in whose place of abode a traveller, according 
to Ariosto, once found some of the lost documents upon 
which the popes base their claim to temporal dominion. 
Besides these laborious but ineifectual efforts to fab- 
ricate historical data in support of the papal pretension 
to temporal sovereignty, Gregory VII., in 1075 asserted 
that Matilda, Duchess of Tuscany, had bequeathed to 
the church her domains. These possessions consisted of 
Tuscany, a part of Umbria, a part of Mark Ancona, 
and the Duchies of Spoleto and Verona. The validity 
of these bequests was disputed by the natural heirs; 
the contest lasted three hundred years, during which 
Italy was distracted, and Germany depopulated. Fred- 
eric I., in vindication of his claims against the preten- 
sions of the pope, invaded Italy on three different occa- 
sions. Henry IV. emperor of Germany, thrice crossed 
the Alps to chastise the. popes for aggressions on the 
Germanic possessions in Italy. During the first cam- 
paign pope Paschal was made a prisoner ; but on the ap- 
19 



218 THE PAPAL 

proach of the imperial army a second time lie fled! from 
Home. Yet amid the disputes of the Germanic succes- 
sion,- and during the minority of Frederic IL r the arms 
and intrigues of the pope won the concession of Europe 
to his claim of Matilda's estates. 

The spurious character of the pope's title to temporal 
power has been exposed by the ablest Catholic authors, 
and rejected with impatient contempt by history. But 
the arguments which have converted a world, have 
never been able to convert the popes. They still main- 
tain that the reputed donations of Constantine r of Pepin, 
of Charlemagne and of Matilda, are real and valid. 
This assertion may appear incredible, but in 1822 Ma- 
rino Malini, the pope's chamberlain,, endeavored to 
establish the genuineness of the fictitious charters of 
Louis-de-Debonnaire, of Otho L, and of Henry IL r in 
vindication of the pope's titles of the alleged grants 
to the See of Eome. 

If the apostolic chair of St. Peter is endowed with a 
divine title to universal temporal sovereignty,, a human 
title is supefluous. The indefatigable exertions of the 
popes to establish a human title to their temporal pos- 
sessions, is a concession that they have no divine title 
to them, and that a human title is necessary to the 
validity of their claim. But as they have based their 
title on the authority of forged documents, and endea- 
vored to fortify and maintain it by successive fabrica- 
tions of the same nature, it is evident that they are 
fully and alarmingly conscious that they have no 
title, either by virtue of their office, or ~by that of 
any donation whatever, to temporal possession or 
authority., 



MONAECHY. 219 

Not only is the holy father's temporal power a usur- 
pation, but so is also his exclusive claim to the use of 
the title of pope. Every bishop, and even some lay- 
men, in the first centuries of Christianity, bore this 
title. In the ancient Greek church it was bestowed 
upon every clergyman. At the General Council of 
Constantinople, in 869, its adoption was first limited 
to the four patriarchs. And in the course of the usur- 
pations of the holy fathers, pope Gregory VII., by au- 
thority of an Italian Council, finally assumed it as the 
exclusive title of the bishops of Rome. 

The popes, the monarchs of the world, in vindicating 
their title to the States of the Church, had to maintain 
a long, bloody and desperate struggle, during which 
their domains were abridged or enlarged, lost or won* 
according to the varying fortunes of their arms and in- 
trigues. But as these warlike enterprises of the holy 
fathers were intimately connected with the convulsions 
and revolutions of Europe, it will prevent repetition by 
deferring further allusion to them until we arrive at 
the subsequent chapters, in which we shall consider the 
papal political intrigues in general. 

The papal monarchy is certainly one of the most 
crafty, demoralizing, and oppressive despotisms that 
has ever disgraced the name of government. Its am- 
bition is insatiable, its duplicity inscrutible, and its 
policy and measures are disgraceful and unprincipled. 
The popes have converted the courteous indulgence of 
friendship into inviolable rights, and from the feeblest 
concession have manufactured the most exorbitant 
claim. Pretending to be spiritual advisers, they be- 
came temporal despots. Soon as they had acquired the 



220 THE PAPAL 

right of owning a farm, they asserted the right of own- 
ing a kingdom ; and when the right was conceded of 
owning a single kingdom, they claimed the right of 
owning all the kingdoms of the earth. A church, a 
mission-house, an acre of land they construed into an 
implication that they had a right to all power, temporal 
or spiritual, for which their capacious maw could crave. 
They first founded mission-houses in different parts of 
the world ; next they claimed absolute jurisdiction over 
them. Disputes respecting property arising between 
the citizens of Eome and these foreign mission-houses 
of the church, the popes claimed the exlusive right to 
arbitrate between them. The right to arbitrate gave 
them the power to judge, and tho opportunity of ad- 
justing disputes according to their advantage. As 
ecclesiastical litigation conduced to the extension of 
their authority, pontiffs were not always too honorable to 
discourage the causes which favored their mediatorial 
interposition. From the right to arbitrate between 
churches, they next claimed the right to arbitrate be- 
tween subjects, then between cities, then between 
nobles, and then between monarchs. As their media- 
tion in church or state affairs enabled them to adjust 
disputes according to their policy, they insidiously la- 
bored to multiply the causes which favored their 
friendly intervention. 

By a succession of forgeries, usurpations, and skiiful 
manoeuvres the papal government advanced, in the pro- 
gress of events, from an obscure origin to supreme 
secular and spiritual jurisdiction. By gradual steps 
the popes acquired the right to decide on ecclesiastical 
and matrimonial questions ; to dispose of church dig- 



MONARCHY. 221 

nities and benefices ; to protect their temporal acquisi- 
tions from alianation by the interdiction of the mar- 
riage of the clergy ; to abridge the investiture of bish- 
oprics by the princes ; to reduce the clergy to absolute 
dependence on their favor by dissolving all bonds of 
interest which subsisted between the bishops and the 
princes; to convene at option synods and councils, 
and to exercise the prerogative of ratifying their de- 
crees ; to command the concession of their infallibility ; 
to enforce confessors on princes and statesmen ; to in- 
troduce the inquisition into kingdoms ; and to regulate 
and superintend schools and colleges. The attainment 
of these objects was the work of centuries. Conceiving 
a desire in one age, they plotted for its accomplishment 
through the events and discords of succeeding ages; 
and when machinations had matured their plan, they 
consummated their wishes by usurpation. The preten- 
sions to the alleged donation of Pepin, of Charlemagne, 
of Matilda, and of the Gothic princes, were not asserted 
until long after the death of the pretended donors, nor 
until art and intrigue had prepared the way for it. 
The alleged grant of Constantino was first announced 
in 765 by Pope Adrian I., in an epistle to Charlemagne. 
The claim to the estates of Matilda was first made by 
Pope Paschal, on the ground that they were granted to 
the Holy See as a fief; and next by pope Innocent II., 
on the ground that they had been granted to it as lord 
paramount. The participation of Pope Leo III. in the 
Consular government of Rome, in a paternal capacity, 
was the first instance of a pope's exercising temporal 
authority. The anointing of Pepin by Pope Adrian L, 
in imitation of the example of Samuel, was the first 

- 



222 THE PAPAL 

semblance of the pope's usurpation of the prerogatives 
of that official in acknowledging the right of kings. 
The victory of Nicholas I. over the Emperor Lothair r 
was the first papal triumph over the secular authority. 
The coronation of Charles the Bold r in 875, by Pope 
John VIII., was the first act of the papal monarch in 
disposing of crowns. The conquests of Robert Guis- 
card, instigated by promises of the popes, furnished the 
first ground of their feudal claims. The fear of the 
terrible consequences of their anathemas and interdic- 
tions, the ill regulated constitution of the European 
States, the imperfection of domestic and international 
law, and the efficient operation of the papal machinery, 
enabled them to render kingdom after kingdom tribu- 
tary to the Holy See. England, from the period of the 
introduction of the Catholic church into her realm; 
Belgaria and Aragon, from the eleventh century ; Po- 
land and Hungary from the thirteenth century ; and 
the kingdom of the two Sicilies, from 1265, had been 
reduced to dependency on the sacerdotal monarchy ; 
and had the crusades been successful, favored by the 
confusion which it had universally produced with 
regard to the rights of citizens and the titles of prop- 
erty, it would have, under the pretext of a zeal to wrest 
the sepulchre of Christ from the possession of the Infi- 
dels, reduced the world to a state of vassalage. 
The success of the political measures and intrigues 
of the Holy See having, at the time of Gregory 
VII., raised it to a high degree of power and 
importance, he attempted to convert it into a theo- 
cratical government, with the pope for its head, 
the priests for its officials, the people for its sub- 



MONARCHY. 223 

jects, and the world for its dominion. Under Innocent 
III., elected in 1195, it acquired almost unlimited spir- 
itual and temporal authority. Under Sixtus V., in 
1585, it contemplated the subjugation of Eussia and 
Egypt, hut the death of Bathore, Duke of Tuscany, 
frustrated the design. But under Pope Clement XII., 
in 1652, its power began to decline. He was obliged 
to cede Naples to Germany, the quarters of the pope's 
embassadors in Venice to the Venitian government, and 
the right of investiture in Savoy to the secular author- 
ity. Pope Pius VI., elected in 1775, beheld the church 
property in France confiscated, and the religious orders 
suppressed ; in Naples the abolition of the customary 
tribute of a horse ; in Germany the interdiction of the 
nunciature ; in Italy the dismemberment of Eomagna, 
Bologna and Ferrara ; and finally, the French troops 
entering Eome and declaring it a republic. 

It is evident from the facts that have been adduced, 
that the Catholic church, or the papal monarchy, desig- 
nates an institution which has politics for its principles, 
monarchy for its object, and religion for its garb. It is 
not only political in its nature and design, but it is a 
political despotism, insulting in its pretensions to the 
common sense of mankind, and dangerous in its prin- 
ciples to the rights of independent governments. 
When we consider the monarchial principles with which 
it is constituted ; its blasphemous arrogation of the at- 
tributes and prerogatives of the deity ; its presumptu- 
ous claim to supreme jurisdiction over all other gov- 
ernments ; the base forgeries which it has committed in 
the support of its arbitrary pretensions ; its impious 
scoff at secular promises, contracts, laws, oaths and con- 



224 THE PAPAL 

stitutions ; its atrocious sanctions of prevarication, of 
evasion, and of mental reservation ; its disgraceful sys- 
tem of espionage ; its system of finance, by which it 
wrings from beggars their pittance, from the laborer the 
reward of his toil, from the dying the inheritance of 
heirs ; that it may pile the wealth of the world in secret 
coffers, to be lavished on bribery, on corruption, on po- 
litical intermeddling, on fomenting sedition and con- 
spiracies, and ultimately, through the means of their dis- 
organizing agencies, for the subjugation of all govern- 
ments under its absolute authority. When we behold 
the blood-stained sword which it has drawn in the sup- 
port of its frauds and usurpations ; the frequent con- 
vulsions with which its unprincipled ambition has 
shaken the world ; its triumphs over science, freedom 
and human right; the rapine, devastated fields, and 
burning cities which has marked the progress of its 
career ; or when we turn our eyes to its late condition 
in Italy, and see, in the nineteenth century, under its 
authority, the inquisition at its bloody work ; the study 
of philosophy banished from universities; no book al- 
lowed to be published, or imported, except such as meet 
the approval of bigoted censors ; the government sus- 
tained only by suppressing insurrection ; the prisons 
crowded with heretics ; political offenders cruelly put 
to death ; the nation struggling for freedom, but bound 
in the fetters of despotism — good heavens ! what a 
scourge is it, and has it been to mankind. Bigotry and 
superstition may chaunt its victories ; but a land once 
prosperous, now choaked up and oppressed with the ru- 
ins of its former greatness ; fields once fertile now 
turned into barren wastes ; a people once the most 



MONAECHY. 225 

valiant, polished and civilized, now the most debased, 
rude and imbecile — with ancestors that governed the 
world, now not able to govern themselves ; a common- 
wealth of kings, now a commonwealth of slaves ; where 
for liberty Cicero plead, Brutus stabbed and Cato died, 
now a. pope curses, an inquisition murders, and prisons 
reverberate with the groans of patriots and freemen. 
These, oh patriots ! are the eternal monuments that 
commemorate the progress and achievements of the 
papal monarchy. The usurper of all rights, the sancti- 
fier of all wrongs, the shrine of bigotry, the model of 
despotism : the church now stands reaffirming the 
crimes and errors of centuries, and is thirsting for an 
opportunity of repeating its past horrible history. Such 
is the papal monarchy ; such is the Catholic church ; 
such is the political institution which she claims the 
divine authority to obtrude, by any means, on the 
world ; and such are the demoralizing, seditious and 
treasonable principles which she carries in her bosom, 
scatters in her pathway, and is laboring to implant in 
the American republic, in order that" she may overthrow 
its structure, that monarchy may supplant its lib- 
eral principles, despotic decrees its legislative enact- 
ments, arbitrary appointments its popular elections, 
aristocracy its equality, slavery its freedom, usurpa- 
tion its guarantees of natural rights, and bigotry, vio- 
lence, and superstition its tolerance, order and science. 



CHAPTER XII. 

PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
ENGLAND, 

Papal Political Machinery — Papal Political Intrigues 
in England, under the Peigns of Henry II — of King 
John — of Henry VII — of Charles I — of Charles 
II — of James II — of William and Mary. 

The design of ruling nations was clearly indicated by 
the principles upon which the monastic orders were 
founded. Regarding supremacy to the pope as the 
main substance of Christianity, and obedience to his 
will as necessary to salvation, their doctrines har- 
monized with his claim to supreme temporal and spir- 
itual power ; and their organization, based strictly on 
monarchial principles, skilfully adapted to secure 
unity and concentration of action, formed, together with 
the military knights, a political machinery in the ad- 
vancement of the papal interests, which was capable of 
intimidating the boldest antagonist, and of shaking the 
power of the strongest government. With the knowl- 
edge of this fact we may perceive the origin of some of 
those mysterious seditions and rebellions which have 
arisen apparently from trifling causes, and which, from 
insignificant beginnings have gained such strength and 
dimensions as to dismay the valor of disciplined arms, 
and distract every section of the land, and every de- 
partment of the government. We may also perceive 



IN ENGLAND. 227 

from the same fact, why the struggle of civil and reli- 
gious liberty has been such a long, bloody, and inter- 
minable conflict. That rational beings should trample 
upon their rights, surrender up their personal sover- 
eignty, kneel in adoration at the feet of a despot, delib- 
erately rivet on their own limbs the irons of slavery, 
crucify their champions, and deify their enemies, is cer- 
tainly strange; and without the supposition of the 
intervention of some secret power by which reason was 
unseated in such instances, it is not conceivable. But 
that the pope, by means of his political machinery, is 
capable of producing identical extraordinary effects, is 
a fact supported by the irrefragable testimony of history; 
and that he has never scrupled to exercise his terrible 
power whenever his ambitious projects required it, un- 
awed by the magnitude of the public calamity which it 
threatened to entail, is a fact written with the blood 
and tears of nations. The secrecy, extent, and irresist- 
ible energy of his power, have sometimes led his unsus- 
pecting subjects to regard him as a magician ; and 
sometimes they have been the cause of his arraignment 
before councils on the charge of practising magic, and 
of having dealings with the devil. But although the 
effects which he produced were as malignant and sur- 
prising as those which have been ascribed to the super- 
natural power of the arch-fiend, yet the only magic he 
ever had the necessity of using was his political ma- 
chinery ; through which he could charm like the poi- 
sonous adder ; mislead like the fabled sirens ; pervert 
the public judgment ; calm or distract a nation ; excite 
it to rebel against its best governor, or to enthrone in 
power its bitterest foe. 



228 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

From the hour when first the Catholic church planted 
her foot on the soil of England until the present mo- 
ment, her emissaries have labored as far as practicable, 
by every available means, under every garb, in all 
departments of the government, and at all periods of 
its history, to subject the nation to the despotism of 
Rome. For a long period the priests were the instruct- 
ors of her princes, the advisers of her kings, and under 
the semblance of spiritual guides, the spies on their 
thoughts and actions. 

Passing by the numerous instances of papal political 
intrigue in the history of England, we will glance at a 
few of those which have taken place since the corona- 
tion of Henry II., in 1154. The most accomplished 
prince of his time, and celebrated for the acuteness of his 
judgment and the equitableness of his decisions, he re- 
ceived at the hands of his regal cotemporaries the dis- 
tinguished honor of being chosen by them as their arbi- 
ter, to settle their matters of dispute. He received 
also, from the policy or generosity of Pope Adrian IV., 
a gift of the kingdom of Ireland. The following extract 
from Adrian's bull on that occasion will explain the na- 
ture and object of the donation : " No one doubts, and 
you know the fact yourself, that Ireland, and all the 
isles that have received the Christian faith belong to the 
church of Rome. And you have signified to us that 
you wish to enter this island, in order to subject the 
people to the laws, and extirpate their vices ; to make 
them pay to St. Peter a penny a year for each house, 
and preserve in all things the rights of the church ; 
which we grant to you with pleasure for the increase of 
the Christian religion." — (Labb. 13, 14, 15). At the 



IN ENGLAND. 229 

dictation of the pope, the Irish, clergy met at Water- 
ford and took the oath of allegiance to Henry and his 
successors. Thus by a pretended prerogative of popery, 
" Ireland was blotted from the map, and consigned to 
the loss of freedom, without a tribunal and without a 
crime." — (McGeoghegan, 1 : 440). But notwithstand- 
ing the munificent bounty of the pope, yet the growing 
weight of the ecclesiastical establishments — so oppres- 
sive to the industry and enterprize of the people — and 
the continual and insidious encroachments of the 
clergy on the prerogatives of the crown, determined 
Henry, under the administration of Pope Alexander 
III., to summon a council of nobles and clergy at 
Clarendon, to frame such a constitution as would be 
adequate for the protection of the prerogatives of the 
crown and the rights of the subjects. The principles of 
this constitution, like seeds sown among thorns and 
brambles, were in danger of being oppressed in their 
early growth by a heavy encumbrance of Catholic ig- 
norance and superstition ; and not until intelligence 
and public spirit had removed the obstruction did they 
show their native benificent vigor. Under the stormy 
reign of Henry II, they were checked, thwarted, and 
at times almost extirpated ; but under that of King 
John they produced the " Magna Charta," under that 
of Charles II. the " Habeas Corpus," and under those 
of succeding princes the various liberal acts which con- 
stitute English liberty. 

Although this liberal and judicious constitution had 

received the sanction of the Council of Clarendon, yet 

it was violently opposed by Thomas-a-Becket, the oracle 

of the pope, and the chief engineer of his political ma- 

19* 



230 PAPEL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

chinery in England. Denouncing it as a profane in- 
fraction of the privileges and immunities of the church, 
he proceeded to excommunicate all persons who had 
acquired, or should acquire ecclesiastical property under 
the authority of its provisions. In savage zeal in be- 
half of the pope, he had violated his oath of allegiance 
to the king ; and thus imprudently furnished his antag- 
onists with legal authority to retaliate the mischief of 
revenge by the confiscation of all his property. Chag- 
rined at the triumph of his foes, and exasperated at the 
loss of his temporal possessions, he sought to solace his 
wounded pride, and vent the ebullitions of his despair 
and rage in excommunicating the principal officers of 
the crown, and all who should presume to violate the 
church prerogatives. But duly impressed with the in- 
trinsic impotence of his own curses, and that neither 
their sanctity nor potency could protect his insolent 
tongue from punishment even while uttering them, he 
fled to France, that he might exercise with impunity 
his sacred functions in cursing his foes. By the man- 
dates of his anathema the papal machinery was, of 
course, set in violent operation to destroy the king for 
the benefit of the church, and to invoke in its cause the 
insidious but formidable aid of scandal, vituperation 
and defamation. The brilliant qualities of Henry were 
unfortunately overshaded with the dark vice of un- 
chastity. As greater rakes are often horrified at the 
peccadillos of lesser ones, so in this case, the more 
profligate clergy became exceedingly exasperated upon 
discovering in the conduct of Henry the practice of 
their own irregularities, modified by less grossness and 
more refinement. Not possessing that charity which 



IN ENGLAND. 



231 



covereth a multitude of sins, but that religion which 
magnifies, distorts and publishes them, they soon man- 
aged to startle the sobriety of every hamlet with whis- 
pers of the king's incredible depravity. To secure the 
visitation of divine justice on the head of Henry, they 
profaned the sanctity of his domestic circle by the dis- 
semination of treacherous and extravagant inventions, 
until the queen was frenzied with jealousy, and GeofTry 
and Richaid, two sons of Henry, were incited to rebel- 
lion. The prudence and martial abilities of the king 
enabled him, however, soon to suppress these afflictive 
and unnatural seditions. But the papal machinery, 
more tremendous and pestiferious than the fabled mon- 
sters of antiquity, with their poisonous breath, their 
hundred heads and thousand hands, was still in action 
in every part of the empire. Hence Henry's son Louis, 
whom he had crowned as his successor, was induced to 
demand of him the surrender of the diadem. In anti- 
cipation of this demand papal intrigue had secured the 
support of France and Scotland in its favor; and con- 
sequently England was suddenly involved in the hor- 
rors of a civil and a foreign war. But the coolness and 
extraordinary military genius of Henry was adequate 
to the terrible emergency. After a desperate contest he 
repelled the invaders, and restored order to his king- 
dom. But the moral effluvia which was produced by 
the action of the papal political machinery, continued 
still to generate those noxious vapors which had so fre- 
quently overclouded the atmosphere of England, and 
broke in storms of pestilence, blood and death. The 
peace of his kingdom was consequently again disturbed 
by the discovery of a conspiracy, at the head of which 



232 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 

was Richard, Henry's third son, and complicated with 
which was John, his favorite and youngest son. Upon 
the disclosure of this mortifying fact, the king pro- 
nounced a curse upon his rebellious children, which 
was more properly merited by the pope and the father 
confessors of the princes, to whom the first conception 
of their treason was known ; and if they did not origi- 
nate, might have blasted it in its bud. But Henry was 
unconsciously dealing with an invisible monster, that 
in the garb of a holy father was commanding his hom- 
age and reverence, while it was profaning his domestic 
hearth, exciting his subjects to sedition, his chil- 
dren to rebellion, and at the same time inducing him 
to attribute to his family and subjects the dreadful 
calamities that had been conjured by the machinations 
of the monster himself. Had Henry had the sagacity 
to penetrate the secrets of the Holy See, and had he 
been able, in defiance of a papal alliance with the 
united crowned heads of Christendom, to have annulled 
the authority of the pope in his relm, and broken up 
the machinery of his treasonable machinations, how 
effectually might he have suppressed the rebellion of 
his sons, and the disorders of his kingdom ; and what 
a blessing he would have been to England and to man- 
kind. Freedom will, however, ever be grateful to the 
king, who laid the foundation of England's liberty. 
The cost at which he purchased this invaluable legacy 
for posterity was as tremendous as are the obligations 
of gratitude which it imposes. His family converted 
into a nest of venomous reptiles; his sons, around 
whom his fondest hopes had clustered, transformed into 
treacherous foes; his laborious efforts to elevate the 



MONARCHY. 233 

importance and improve the condition of his subjects, 
converted into sources of the deepest of misfortunes; 
these were the papal demands, outweighing the wealth 
of worlds, which were imposed on him for having 
served the cause of justice, of humanity, and of his 
country ; and under the rigorous exactions of these de- 
mands, three days after the disclosure of the last con- 
spiracy of his sons, he sunk into an unconsecrated 
grave, ruined and broken hearted. 

The Papal See governed by an unscrupulous ambi- 
tion to realize the success of its projects for acquiring 
unbounded territorial aggrandizement, has, with equal 
craft and baseness, endeavored to make the vices as well 
as the power of princes administer to its interests. This 
policy is illustrated in the schemes of papal policy and 
intrigue concocted under the reign of King John, 
youngest son of Henry II., who on the decease of his 
father in 1199 ascended the English throne. This 
prince had conspired against the most indulgent of 
fathers, had warred against his brother Kichard, had 
murdered his brother Arthur, had repudiated his wives, 
and had exercised regal authority with insolence and 
tyranny, without provoking the maledictions or inter- 
ference of the Holy See. But as these enormities de- 
prived him of the affections of his subjects, a ruler's 
chief support ; exhausted his coffers, the sinews of war 
and opposition ; made him more dependent on the 
favor of Rome, more entangled in the network of its 
policy, and admirably prepared the way for the accom- 
plishment of its ulterior designs, its indulgence, and 
perhaps connivance may be reasonably accounted for. 

But after a war with France exhausted the resources 
20* 



234 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

of John, rendered him less popular, and more irascible 
and impatient, Pope Innocent III. improved the flatter- 
ing opportunity which crime and misfortune had pre- 
sented, to provoke a collision with him favorable to the 
success of the papal designs. John claimed the right 
of investiture ; and in making this claim seems to have 
been supported by the cooperation of the papal politi- 
cal machinery. The See of Canterbury having become 
vacant, the pope appointed Cardinal Langston to fill 
the vacancy. This act John resisted as an unjustifiable 
encroachment on the prerogatives of the crown. But 
the arts of the pope had involved the king in a snare ; 
and now having fairly entangled him, proceeded to 
prepare the way for realizing his temporal project by 
exercising his spiritual functions. Accordingly he sus- 
pended the performance of religious worship in the 
king's dominions, excommunicated him, and absolved 
his subjects from their allegiance to him. The papal 
political machinery acting in harmony with the male- 
dictions of the pope, the wildest disorders were excited 
among the people ; anarchy suspended all law ; the 
army refused to obey the king's orders ; his friends de- 
serted him ; and he found himself without domestics, 
without alliances, and without the means of resistance. 
It is an invariable practice of the holy fathers, who 
claim a right to all the world by virtue of their office, 
to endeavor to supersede the necessity of this title by 
acquiring a legal one. Hence, Innocent III., seeing the 
helpless condition to which he had reduced John, and 
touched at the cruel misfortunes in which he had in- 
volved him, now graciously proposed to mitigate the 
rigors of his adversities, and to restore him to his for- 



IN ENGLAND. 235 

mer authority, if he would cede his kingdom to the Pope 
of Rome, and consent to rule it as a vassal of the pope. 
Divested of adherents, arms or alliances, the king sub- 
mitted unconditionally to the terms dictated by the sa- 
cerdotal despot. The design of the papal See of 
reducing England to a state of vassalage, conceived in 
ambition, pursued by craft and cruelty, was thus con- 
summated by the most execrable tyranny. This empty 
title to England and Ireland, so full of trick and fraud, 
is nevertheless still mentioned by the Holy See as valid 
and indisputable. 

But the benefits of the statesmanship, and of the 
divinely inspired council of the holy father, by which 
John was bound in future to fae governed in the admin- 
istration of his kingdom, did not prevent him from ex- 
citing the indignation of his subjects, by encroachments 
on their rights ; nor restrain him from the perpetration 
of such unwarrantable acts as created a popular hat- 
red of him, which finally culminated in open resist- 
ance to his authority. So violent were the conflicts 
that arose between him and his subjects, that in order 
to save his crown he had to yield to their demand the 
act of the " Magna Charta." The pope, however, the 
natural foe of all constitutional guarantees of popular 
right and liberty, benevolently interposed in behalf of 
the imbecile and overawed prince, and absolved him 
from all obligations to comply with any of the unplea- 
sant concessions which he had made ; declaring the 
Magna Charta antagonistical to the Catholic religion ; 
forbidding the king to observe any of its provisions ; 
and pronouncing sentence of excommunication on all 
who should obey, or attempt to enforce the heretical 



236 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

act. Again the papal machinery was set in violent 
operation. Spies watched, confessors reported, abbots 
schemed, bishops predicted, priests thundered, monks 
prowled and assassins murdered, until every city, vil- 
lage and house, was distracted with alarm. In the 
midst of the consternation which stupefied the public 
mind the king, through the instrumentality of the 
papal machinery, suddenly appeared at the head of a 
formidable army ; and as if he were a foreign enemy, 
commenced butchering his subjects, firing their dwell- 
ings and carrying terror and devastation through his 
own kingdom. So profoundly secret were the papal 
machinations carried on, and so suddenly and unex- 
pectedly had John appeared with an army fully 
equipped for war that — no suspicion of such a design hav- 
ing been excited in the minds of the military barons — 
no preparations were made to meet the emergency. As 
suddenly, mysteriously, and adroitly as King John's army 
had sprung into existence, so did the barons resolve, 
in order to defeat its object, to tender the crown of the 
realm to France ; which proffer being accepted, the in- 
trigues of the pope were thwarted, and Philip of 
France became sovereign of England. 

The popes claim the divine attribute of infallibility, 
yet in changing their policy and practice to suit the 
variations of time, place and circumstance, they seem 
generally to have descended to the common level of 
humanity. In order, however, to reconcile the irrecon- 
cilable, while they profess to have had communicated to 
them the incommunicable, they claim to have been en- 
dowed with power to change the unchangeable. Should 
a prince resolve to do that which the pope's infallible 



IN ENGLAND. 237 

holiness has declared to be criminal, and should that 
prince happen to be too powerful to be intimidated, 
and too dangerous to be provoked into rebellion, in 
such delicate cases the pope, with his facilities to ac- 
commodate all difficulties, grants a dispensation, where- 
by the applicant is empowered to violate all the infal- 
lible laws of the church without incurring any of their 
penalties. 

In the reign of Henry VII., who became king of 
England in 1485, we find an illustration of this policy. 
That sovereign had married Arthur, his eldest son, to 
Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Arragon. Gn 
the decease of Arthur, the king, with the view of retaining 
the opulent Spanish dowery in his family, desired to 
marry the widow of Arthur to his next son. The 
young prince Henry, but fifteen years old, protested 
against marrying a lady for whom he had no affection, 
and who was so much his senior. Besides this diffi- 
culty the contemplated alliance was in violation of the 
laws of consanguinity, so solemnly established by the 
authority of the infallible church, and so terriffically 
armed with all the terrors of anathemas and excommu- 
nication. To silence the objection of his son, and the 
thunders of the Vatican, Henry applied to the pope for 
permission to execute his purposes, in violation of the 
established laws of the church ; and the pope, not 
deeming it prudent to offend so powerful a potentate, 
granted his request But vain are the pope's preten- 
sions to be able to change the moral law of heaven un- 
less he can also change the natural course of events. 
In this attempt to accommodate principle to interest, 
and the infallible laws of the church to the changing 



238 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

wliim of an avaricious monarch, he laid the foundation 
for the final separation of the kingdom of England from 
the See of Rome. 

After the death of Henry VII. his son, under the 
title of Henry VIII., succeeded to the British throne. 
Frank and vain, he became at an early period of his 
life an object of the subtle policy of Rome. Naturally 
generous, his indomitable love of power and dominion 
often led him to violate the obligations of humanity ; 
and impetuous in passion, and impatient of" restraint, 
he was tempted to annihilate the constitutional restraints 
which conflicted with his designs, and to make the forms 
of justice subservient to the gratification of his ambi- 
tion and interest. 

Happening to become enamored of Anne Bolyne, he 
began to suspect the legality of his marriage with 
Catherine ; and though he had recognized its obliga- 
tions by a union of twenty years, yet the oftener he 
saw his mistress the stronger became his convictions of 
the heterodoxy and unlawfulness of his matrimonial 
relations, and the more scrupulous he became about his 
chastity. The want of male issue, and the disparity of 
years between him and his wife mingled reflections with 
these legal and religious scruples, and made them so 
pungent that Henry, in order to get rid of the torment 
thus inflicted, finally applied to the pope for a divorce. 
The pope promised to grant his request ; but the fear of 
offending Charles V., Catherine's nephew, produced 
strange vacillation in the mind of the infallible holy 
father. Two powerful and crafty princes dictated to 
him opposite courses ; to offend either would be disas- 
trous ; he therefore pretended to favor the wishes of 



IN ENGLAND. 239 

both. Aware of papal artifice, however, Henry became 
imperious in bis demands. The pope appeared to yield, 
and to soothe the impatient prince with a semblance of 
compliance, but a means of procrastination, he commis- 
sioned Cardinals Wolsey and Campaggio to adjust the 
difficulty. They cited the queen to appear before them ; 
she appealed to the pope ; they declared her contuma- 
cious. By these proceedings the controversy becom- 
ing more embarrassed than before, and less capable of a 
speedy solution, Henry peremptorily decided the mat- 
ter by consummating his marriage with Anne Bolyne. 
This act astonished the pope, and enraged Charles Y. 
To gratify Charles, and to punish Henry, the holy 
father proceeded to excommunicate the latter. The 
despotic character of Henry, however, had too much 
overawed his subjects to allow the papal machinery to 
give much efficacy to the manifestos of its prime en- 
gineer ; and placing himself at the head of the Catho- 
lic church in England, he released his subjects from al- 
legiance to the See of Rome, effected a separation from 
it, and nullified its temporal authority over his do- 
minions. 

Discarding the dogma of the pope's temporal power, 
Henry still strictly adhered to the standard of Catholic 
theology in all other respects ; and the pope, at the 
same time, through the medium of Cardinal Wolsey, 
continued to exert considerable indirect influence on 
his mind. This prelate who, while he was a preacher 
at Limington was put into the stocks for disorderly 
conduct in a drunken frolic ; who afterwards was made 
domestic chaplain by Dean, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
and who was finally created cardinal by the pope, ob- 



240 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

tained sucn unlimited power over the mind of Henry 
that the pope pensioned him to keep him in his inter- 
est. It is not a matter of much surprise that Henry's 
aversion to the reformers, inflamed by the arts of such 
a vicious counsellor, should have brought so many of 
them to the stake ; nor that the bigotry and intoler- 
ance of Catholicism should have survived the destruc- 
tion of its political engine. Henry VIII. condemned 
to death Lambert, a school teacher, for denying the real 
presence At intervals during his reign he rigorously 
persecuted the Protestants Catherine Parr, his last 
wife, barely escaped execution for having encouraged the 
reformers. A warrant had been wrung from the king 
by the Bishop of Winchester, for her committal to the 
Tower on the charge of heretical opinions ; but having 
become secretly apprised of the fact in time she sought 
the king, and satisfied him that when she had objected 
to his opinions it was from a desire to become enlight- 
ened by his superior knowledge and intelligence. 
While he employed violent means to enforce con- 
formity to the Catholic theology, he visited equal 
vengeance on those who advocated the pope's tem- 
poral authority. When he discovered that the monks 
and friars were guilty of defending the obnoxious 
heresy of the pope's temporal power, he suppressed their 
houses ; but not wishing to destroy the monastic 
orders, he applied the sequestered funds to the estab- 
lishment of other similar institutions ; but on perceiv- 
ing these also to be secretly engaged in machinations to 
restore the pope's temporal authority, he abolished the 
religious orders altogether. Even Cardinal Wolsey fell 
under his suspicion, and was executed for treason by 



IN ENGLAND. 241 

Ms order. After he had beheaded his wife, Catherine 
Howard for unchastity, his severity against those who 
advocated the pope's temporal sovereignty, and against 
those who denied the Romish theology, was cruel in the 
highest degree. 

What papal rapaciousness cannot boldly grasp, it will 
secretly plot to obtain. Kings who control nations, 
women who may perhaps control kings, and children 
who are presumptive heirs of empires, are powerful in- 
struments in the accomplishment of political designs, 
and especial objects of papal intrigue. 

The inveterate opposition to Catholics in England 
rendered it almost impossible for a Catholic to ascend 
the throne, and eventually interdicted it by positive 
enactments. To counteract the consequences of this 
spirit, a scheme was projected by papal craft to have 
the heirs of the throne educated by Catholic mothers, 
so that future kings might rule as Protestants with 
Catholic proclivities, and in course of time, through the 
demoralization, dissatisfaction, discord and blood effected 
by the cooperation of its adherents, the suprem- 
acy of the pope might be reestablished in England. 
James I., who on the death of Elizabeth succeeded to 
the crown of England and Scotland, a ruler devoid of 
statesmen-like abilities, without firmness or stability, 
and bloated up with fanciful notions of royal preroga- 
tives, was the pliant instrument of this subtle policy. 
An amorous flame having been kindled in him and in 
Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV., of France, it 
was stipulated that the union should be consummated, 
on condition that the heirs which should issue should 

be subject to the exclusive control of their mother un- 
- - 21 



242 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

til they were thirteen years of age. This contract 
secured a Catholic education to the heirs of the British 
throne, and laid the foundations for the dreadful calam- 
ities which afflicted the nation during the reigns of 
Charles II. and James II. 

The abolition of papal despotism over the English 
mind giving freedom to thought and inquiry, could not 
but enlarge its conceptions of civil and religious liberty. 
The old system of prerogatives sunk into contempt, and 
the new system of representative government became 
more popular as the mind became more comprehensive 
in its grasp, and more profound in its investigation. 
Hence the Puritans, who originally were Catholics, and 
merely advocated a simpler form of worship ; the 
Presbyterians and the Independents, who at first ques- 
tioned only the temporal power of the pope, yet driven 
from those whom they had venerated by the hate which 
persecution engenders, and disenthralled from the 
shackles with which custom and superstition enslaves 
the mind, began fearlessly and candidly to investigate 
the fundamental principles of faith and practice, and 
to elaborate theological creeds totally different from 
those of Catholicism, and vastly superior to them. 
"While the people were rapidly advancing in liberal 
views of religion and government, the heir of the throne 
was too much absorbed in magnifying his visionary 
prerogatives to share in the progress of the age, or 
to study the character of the people over whom he was 
destined to reign. When in 1625 he ascended tho 
English throne, under the title of Charles I., the new 
order of popular sentiment had become an impetuous 
torrent. Common sagacity might have perceived the 



IN ENGLAND. 243 

inevitable destruction that would await him if he should 
attempt to stem the popular tide of thought ; and pru- 
dence would have dictated a practicable compromise of 
differences rather than the certain alternative of civil 
war. But Archbishop Laud, a Catholic under the dis- 
guise of Protestantism, and who was the medium of the 
pope's influence, exercised a despotism over the king's 
mind too absolute to allow his reason to instruct, or his 
conscience to admonish him. The religious views and 
secret designs of this professed Protestant bishop can- 
not be misunderstood. He maintained that the papal 
authority had always been visible in the realm. He 
furnished the king with a significant list of the names 
of all his Catholic and Protestant subjects. He was 
also the principal actor in the Star Chamber, and Court 
of High Commission. So well was the pope satisfied 
with the orthodoxy of this sacerdotal miscreant that he 
sent him a cardinal's hat, which he declined for the am- 
biguous reason that the " Church of Rome was no other 
than it was !" The king, controlled and ill-advised by 
such a counsellor, blinded by his own bigotry, and elated 
with self-conceit, was led to scorn the rising spirit of 
the nation, and to adopt measures for its suppression. 
But parliament with prudent foresight, and patriotic 
boldness, taught him that the Commons were the con- 
stitutional dispensers and guardians of the public trea- 
sury. He next resolved to oblige Scotland to conform 
to the ritual prescribed by the Church of England ; 
and as parliament had refused to allow him the use of 
the public funds for that and other purposes, he at- 
tempted to raise means for their accomplishment by 
unconstitutional methods. By this impolitic course he 



244 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

aroused a lion from its den, with whose strength and 
fury he could not well cope. The Scotch formed a 
league of Covenanters, composed of all classes and fac- 
tions, for the defence of their religious liberty ; and as 
the king viewed their enthusiastic and formidable array, 
and compared it with the suspicious material of his own 
army, he prudently concluded terms of pacification. 

Having frequently called the Commons together in 
parliament, and finding them more disposed to dictate 
than to obey, and inflexible in their refusal to furnish him 
with the pecuniary aid necessary to the accomplishment 
of his design, he finally determined to rule without a 
parliament, and by a liberal construction of his prerog- 
atives to arrogate monarchial power. An object so 
consistent with the dogmas of Catholicism, and so flat- 
tering to the vanity of the Episcopal royalists, equally 
betrayed them into acquiescence. To aid the king in 
his despotic design the royalists extolled his preroga- 
tives, asserted their divine origin, declared it impious 
to prescribe any limits to them, and inculcated passive 
obedience as a Christian virtue and imperative duty. 
The terror of the Star Chamber, and of the Court of 
High Commission, was also called into requisition. But 
neither the eloquent encomiums lavished on the king's 
prerogative, nor the atrocities of the Star Chamber, 
nor the severity of the Court of High Commission, nor 
a rebellion excited in Ireland against parliament, nor 
the arms of the royal troops, produced anything for the 
king's prerogatives but disgrace and ridicule. 

Dreading the liberalism and inflexibility of the Com- 
mons, and the uncompromising hostility against his 
person and measures which his persecution of non-con- 



MONARCHY. 245 

formists had excited in the majority of them, yet he 
was obliged, by the critical state of public affairs, to 
call them together. This parliament proved the mem- 
orable " long parliament." As might have been ex- 
pected, its embittered and exasperated members opened 
the session with torrents of scorn and contempt poured 
on the king and his prerogatives. They also adopted 
every expedient to inflame the public mind, and to 
make it accessory to their design of reducing the king 
to unresisting helplessness. They denounced the Epis- 
copalians, and other advocates of the king's preroga- 
tives, in whom Catholicism and monarchy had dis- 
guised themselves under the semblance of Protestant- 
ism. They attempted to exclude the bishops from the 
House of Lords. They so intimidated the royalists of 
the House that many of them absented themselves from 
their seats. They restricted the king's prerogatives, 
abolished the Star Chamber, and the Court of High 
Commission, passed acts against superstitious practices, 
executed Laud and Stafford, and as the king had set the 
dangerous precedent of liberal construction of law and 
prerogatives, they availed themselves of the same 
means to justify their measures. The impetuous tor- 
nado of their zeal and wrath swept away all the king's 
elaborate schemes for the acquisition of monarchial 
power, and poured upon his unprotected head a pitiless 
storm of wrath. Condemned to be the helpless specta- 
tor of the destruction of his hopes of absolute power, 
which art, tyranny, and usurpation had enabled him to 
build, he became wild with despair and rage, and, in a 
desperate attempt to retrieve his fortune by asserting in 
his extremity his empty prerogatives, he brought his 
21* 



246 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

precarious condition to an unfortunate close. Entering 
the House of Commons, lie personally attempted to ar- 
rest some of its members. The House, consequently, 
broke up in disorder ; the king saw his error, but too 
late ; he fled from his capitol in terror ; two armies 
arose ; the one under the king, the other under parlia- 
ment: after several bloody battles, the king lost his 
crown, and finally his life. 

Parliament now resolved to rule without a king as 
the king had resolved to rule without a parliament. 
The spirit of despotism under the form of freedom, still, 
however, predominated in the national councils. Crom- 
well, a professed republican, but a secret monarchist ; as 
intolerant as he was religious, and crafty as he was am- 
bitious ; who, as interest instigated, favored or perse- 
cuted Catholics, Protestants, Puritans, and Republicans, 
was this despotic spirit which desecrated the form of 
Freedom, and which induced him while he governed 
England as a protector, to seek to govern her as a king, 
and to plot in secret to reestablish her throne. After 
the termination of his eventful career, and the resigna- 
tion of his appointed successor, Charles II., son of James 
I., in 1660 was crowned King of England. 

Illiberal in mind, intolerant in disposition, defective 
in sensibility, and destitute of honor and generosity, he 
was base as a man, dishonorable as a prince, and a pli- 
able instrument of the papal intrigues. A hypocrite 
from his birth, he was capable of assuming any guise ; 
and supremely selfish, he tolerated vice and corruption 
whenever it administered to his interests. By the licen- 
tiousness of his court he degraded the moral standing 
of the British nation in the eyes of the world and of 



IN ENGLAND. 247 

history, and with a despotic and unprincipled set of 
measures, arrogated power in defiance of constitutional 
obstructions, and reduced the people to slavery in con- 
tempt of their hereditary valor and independence, and 
the safeguards with which they had protected their 
liberty. 

The pathway to his elevation to the throne having 
been prepared by General Monk, he was received with 
frantic acclamations by conflicting civil and religious 
sects, and without a struggle succeeded to those danger- 
our prerogatives which had cost the nation so much 
blood and treasure. The admonition of past occurren- 
ces had induced him to disguise under the cloak of a 
pacific and accommodating policy, his secret and ulterior 
designs. But the specious mask fell from his brow 
when he passed the intolerent act of non-conformity, by 
which the Presbyterians were peremptorily driven from 
their livings. 

Profligacy, which enfeebles the intellectual powers, 
and destroys the foundation of public respect, has ever 
been encouraged in princes or people by the artifice of 
those whose ambition has plotted to make them subser- 
vient to their interest, or dependent on their power. 
The disgracefnlness of this policy has never been too 
abhorrent to the Koman See to cause it to forego the 
advantages of its adoption. The profligate character 
of Charles II., and the dissolute manners which he in- 
troduced into his court, ably aided the papal machin- 
ery in alienating from him the respect and affection of 
his subjects, and in making him more dependent on the 
favor of the pope. His extravagance involved him 
eventually in such pecuniary embarrassments that he 



248 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 

became a pensioner on Louis, king of France ; and in 
consequence became doubly ironed with the papal 
shackles — the king of France forming one set of man- 
acles, the priests of England another — and both were 
equally bound to the interests of the papal monarchy. 
That every thought and action might be discovered in 
its incipiency, he was furnished with a French lady to 
amuse him in his retirement This accomplished but 
abandoned female obtained such ascendency over his 
mind, that she induced him to make her a duchess. 
Thus watched, debased and controlled, he became the 
unconscious tool of the designs of others, and was led 
to alarm the public mind by forming a disgraceful cabal, 
by which to concert measures for making himself inde- 
pendent of parliament. 

To add to the public dissatisfaction the Duke of 
York, the heir presumptive to the throne, openly es- 
poused the cause of Catholicism. Strong measures 
were consequently adopted to remove him from his post, 
as admiral of the navy, and eventually to exclude him 
from the throne. The violent factions, and fierce crim- 
inations and recriminations to which these measures 
gave rise kept the people in a state of feverish excite- 
ment. In the midst of these wild alarms a pretended 
popish plot was reported to have been discovered/ which 
received universal credence. The design of this plot 
was said to be to destroy parliament and assassinate the 
king. A secret Catholic faction was supposed to exist 
in the nation, the object of which was to restore the 
authority of the pope ; and circumstances lending credi- 
bility to the supposition, the most intense excitement 
seized the public mind. Parliament was terrific in its 



IN ENGLAND. 249 

denunciations, and the people clamorous for vengeance. 
Lords were arrested, priests hung, the Duke of York 
fled from the country in terror, the Earl of Stafford 
was beheaded, and the king, filled with consternation, 
yielded to the popular demand the Habeas Corpus act, 
to avert the storm that was muttering destruction over 
his head. Fortified with this new safeguard to public free- 
dom, the people became tranquil once more ; but the king 
perceiving the formidable obstacle which parliament 
obtruded in the way of his acquisition of despotic 
power, resolved to get rid of it by making it the instru- 
ment of its own destruction. After having assem- 
bled it severel times for this purpose, and finding 
it inflexibly opposed to his measures, he determined 
to dispense with it altogether, and to substitute 
his prerogatives in the place of its authority. In order 
to reduce the corporations to an absolute depend- 
ence on his will, he employed with as much base- 
ness as tyranny, intimidations to induce them to sur- 
render their charters, so that they might be remodelled 
in accordance with the claims of the absolute power of 
his prerogatives. In order to deplete the ranks of non- 
Catholics, he had recourse to gross and unfounded 
charges of plots and conspiracies. Lord Shaftsbury, 
the author of the Habeas Corpus act, was arrested, im- 
prisoned in the Tower and tried for high treason ; but 
acquitted. Dungeons were overcrowded with subjects 
against whom no allegation laid, except that of love of 
liberty and opposition to tyranny. But while he was 
wading through the innocent blood of his subjects to a 
crown of unlimited monarchy, some desperate spirits 
were secretly concocting a plot to arrest his atrocious 



250 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 

career by the deplorable means of the assassin's dag- 
ger. This unsuccessful conspiracy, known as the Rhy- 
house plot, which could not escape the omniscient eye 
of the Catholic machinery, was, of course, discovered 
before it had matured its plans, and only gave the king 
a plausible pretence for gratifying his malignancy 
against the ablest advocates of constitutional liberty. 
William Russell, who had with undaunted firmness 
maintained the fundamental principle of free govern- 
ment, was the first victim through this unfortunate af- 
fair, to the eagerness of the king's bloodthirsty revenge. 
Foredoomed, he was tried by a packed jury, and con- 
demned against conclusive proof of his innocence. 
Alerngon Sidney, another apostle of liberty, was un- 
justly charged with high treason. The law requiring 
two witnesses to substantiate allegations of this nature, 
and but one having appeared, and he as unreliable as he 
was promptly received, the infamous Jeffrey summoned 
into court a manuscript which had been found in the 
closet of the defend ent. In this manuscript the author 
expressed a preference for a free to an arbitrary gov- 
ernment. The judge deciding that the document 
was a competent witness in his court, (although he did 
not swear it), and that it supplied the want of the other 
witness required by the law of treason, proceeded to 
pass sentence of death on the accused. 

By means of similar unwarrantable proceedings, and 
the co-operation of the papal machinery, the king suc- 
ceeded in dragooning Scotland into conformity, in sup- 
pressing the bold Covenanters, and in amassing almost 
sufficient power for the accomplishment of any purpose. 
After he had, in defiance of parliament and the laws, 



IN ENGLAND. 251 

and by means of tyrannical measures and execrable 
usurpations, rendered himself as absolute in power as 
any despot in Europe, death interposed in the midst of 
his success, and removed him from a throne which he 
had disgraced, and a people whom he had oppressed. 
Had his conduct during his life left a doubt of his genuine 
Catholicism, and hypocritical profession of Protestant- 
ism, the last moments of his existence were sufficient to 
dispel them. Just before his death he received the 
sacrament according to the rites of the Catholic church, 
and having no further need of deception, openly pro- 
fessed himself a Catholic. 

James II., brother of Charles II., in 1685 succeeded 
to the throne of England and Scotland. Educated 
like his brother, he had imbibed similar religious and 
political sentiments. While Duke of York he at first 
secretly, but afterwards openly, professed the Catholic 
faith. When, in the course of intrigue and conflict, the 
royal party had gained the ascendency in Scotland, he 
retired thither ; and manifested his barbarous ferocity 
by personally assisting at the torturing of the Cove- 
nanters. The rapid strides which his brother had made 
towards the acquisition of absolute power, and the par- 
alyzing dread which cruelty and tyranny had cast over 
the public mind, enabled James II. to succeed to the 
British throne without opposition. From the hour he 
became invested with the royal dignity, he adopted 
every expedient that craft could devise to convert his 
royal prerogatives into monarchial authority, and to se- 
cure the restoration of Catholicism as the religion of 
the kingdom. As virtue scorns to be the tool of vice, 
and as sycophants are the most pliable instruments of 



252 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

despotism, lie adopted the policy of investing the most 
unscrupulous with official authority. Supreme among 
his base and cringing creatures stood Judge Jeffrey. 
The chief engineer of the papal machinery — the con- 
trolling spirit of the king and his councils ; insolent, 
imperious, arbitrary and oppressive, this man was ready 
for any work that furnished sufficient blood and plun- 
der. By barbarous and inhuman acts, and by the arbi- 
trary execution of innocent subjects, this monster in 
human form succeeded in casting a deep gloom over tho 
public mind, and in annihilating all apparent opposi- 
tion to the tyrannical proceedure of the king. Amid 
the death-like silence which hung on the lips of the 
people the king threw off his disguise, entered into ne- 
gotiation with the pope for the reception of England 
into the papal church, celebrated mass invested with 
the royal paraphernalia, assumed the power of parlia- 
ment, nullified all test oaths, filled the councils and 
army with Catholics, governed Scotland and Ireland 
by his creatures, organized ecclesiastical tribunals to 
try such clergy as were suspected of holding liberal 
sentiments, committed bishops to the Tower for having 
remonstrated against the propriety of reading a docu- 
ment concerning a popish indulgence which he had 
commanded to be read in all the churches, and adopted 
every possible method to subvert civil and religious 
liberty, and to bind on his subjects the shackles of papal 
despotism. Towards the final consummation of his 
calamitous design he appeared to be making rapid 
strides ; but, though the papal machinery was formid- 
able, yet there was another power more formidable still ; 
as wily and as secret : which was ouietly maturing its 



IN ENGLAND. 253 

strength for the hour of retribution. The oppressive 
measures of the king and the failure of every attempt 
at compromise and conciliation, had created a stern 
opposition in the mind of the people, of the gentry, and 
of some lords. Silent but powerful, though this opposi- 
tion seemed to slumber, yet it was but calmly waiting the 
destined hour, when it would arise and annihilate dynas- 
ties and prerogatives. While the king, deceived by the 
treacherous calm, was trampling in insolent contempt 
on the people's rights ; while sycophantic priests were 
chaunting his song of triumph ; and while the pope 
was congratulating him on his success, and stretching 
forth his hand to receive the kingdom, William of 
Orange suddenly appeared on the coast of England 
with a formidable navy and army, and, as with the 
stroke of an enchanter's wand, changed the calm and 
brilliant prospects of the king into storms and sights of 
horror, and the peans of his sycophants into howling 
and lamentations. Terrified at the sight, the king re- 
pealed his unpopular acts, and proffered to his subjects 
all the rights which they had in vain plead for before. 
Conscious of their strength, and irreconcilable in the me- 
mory of their wrongs, they rejected with scorn and indig- 
nation all his generous overtures. As he had ruled as a 
tyrant, he now absconded as a coward. The throne 
was declared abdicated, and William and Mary pro- 
claimed sovereigns of England and Scotland. After 
some fruitless attempts to regain his kingdom, James 
II. turned Jesuist, and passed the remainder of his 
life in doing penance. 

Edward, the Pretender, grandson of James I., edu- 
cated at Rome, was another instrument which the pope 
22 



254 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 

adopted to establish his authority over the crown of 
England. This treasonable plot was unanimously sup- 
ported by the tory party. This faction had ever been 
a prominent branch of the papal machinery. Under 
the disguise of Protestantism, in 1680, the tories made 
vigorous efforts for the subjugation of England to the 
papal dominion. They were the most strenuous sup- 
porters of Charles II. In every scheme of oppression 
and violence — in the persecution of dissenters, in the 
banishment of patriots, in the murder of the advocates 
of popular freedom — in every project of the king to 
grasp monarchial power, in the abrogation of the free 
charters, in the assumption of despotic prerogatives, in 
the efforts to abolish parliament, they were the bold and 
unequivocal supporters. It was, therefore, consistent 
with their historic tradition that they should welcome 
as allies of the pope the invasion of Edward, and be 
ready to repeat their former atrocities in his cause. 
England's vigilance, however, defeated Edward's first 
attempt, in 1742, but he made another in 1745 which 
was more successful. Landing secretly in Scotland with 
but seven trusty officers, yet such was the efficiency of 
the papal machinery, that it soon enabled him to com- 
mand an army which made England tremble. But the 
contest was short and decisive. Although he gained 
some important advantages, yet the signal victory over 
his forces at Culloden, in 1746, effectually checked his 
career. Despairing of success, he fled to France, where, 
through the intercession of the king's mistress, he re- 
ceived a pension. He finally returned to Borne, where 
•he died of diseases engendered by habits of intem- 
perance. 



IN ENGLAND. 255 

We have now alluded, in this chapter to some of 
those popish intermeddlings in the political concerns of 
England, so grossly in violation of international law, 
and which have been so prolific of treason, of popular 
insurrection, of civil war, and of all that can empover- 
ish a nation and impede its progress ; but we have men- 
tioned but few of them. The limits we have prescribed 
to this work will not allow us to trace the wily and 
deadly serpent of papal intrigue in all its secret wind- 
ings, nor dwell upon the important admonitory les- 
sons its history furnishes to patriots, to rulers, and to 
mankind : these we must leave to the reflection of the 
reader. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
FRANCE. 

Papal Intrigues in France during the Reign of Clovis — of 
Childeric III. — of Pepin — of Charlemagne — of Hugh 
Capet — of Philip IV. — of Louis , XII — of Francis 
I. — of Francis II — of Charles IX. — of Henry IV. — 
of Louis XIII — of Louis XIV. 

The subtile poison of Catholicism was instilled into the 
French government under the reign of Clovis, the 
Great, who succeeded his father Childeric, King of the 
Franks, in 481. Aspiring to extend the territory of his 
kingdom, which was confined within the sea and the 
Scheldt, he made war upon Syagrius, the Roman gov- 
ernor at Soissons ; captured and put him to death ; 
subjugated Paris, and the cities of Belgia Secunda-; and 
to obtain assistance in conquering the Allemanni ; es- 
poused Clotilda, neice of Gundebald, King of Burgundy. 
Clotilda, who had been educated by the Catholic priests, 
became in their hands an instrument for the conver- 
sion of her royal husband. Conceiving that the God 
and religion of Catholicism were better able to aid 
him in completing his intended conquests than were 
the God and religious contrivances of Paganism, Clovis 
submitted to be baptized by St. Remigius, and anointed 
with some holy oil which the bishop affirmed had been 
brought by a dove from heaven. The crimes and devo- 



IN FRANCE. 257 

tion of the king, in the cause of the church, were re- 
warded with numberless miracles and instances of di- 
vine interposition. A white hart of singular statue and 
brilliancy became the conductor of his army through 
secret passes, a dazzling meteor blazed forth as his 
forces approached the cathedral at Poitiers, and the 
walls of Angouleme fell down at the blast of his war- 
like bugle. Imbibing the orthodoxy of the bishops, 
he imbibed also their hatred to the heretics. " It grieves 
me," said he to a company of princes and warriors as- 
sembled at Paris, " to see the Arians still possess the 
fairest portions of Gaul. Let us march against them 
with the aid of God ; and, having vanquished the here- 
tics we will possess and divide their fertile provinces." 
His savage piety led him to declare that had he been at 
the trial of Christ he would have prevented his cruci- 
fixion. He summoned and dismissed a council of Gaulic 
bishops ; and then deliberately assassinated all the 
princes belonging to his family. After having removed, 
by violence or treachery, the princes of the different 
Frankish tribes, incorporated their government into his 
own, stained the soil with the blood of its proprietors 
and defenders, bowed in abject reverence before the 
clergy, and committed the most fiendish and heartrend- 
ing atrocities, the pope of Rome, in consideration of his 
piety and usefulness, bestowed upon him the title 
of " The most Christian King and Eldest Son of the 
Church." 

While the pope professed to be the humble successor 

of St. Peter, the fisherman, he was secretly laboring to 

become the successor of the Csesars, the masters of the 

world. With this end in view he had scattered his 

22* 



258 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

monks throughout Europe to preach the doctrines of 
humility, of passive obedience, of reverence for the 
clergy, and of absolute submission to himself. The 
support which these doctrines gave to despotism ren- 
dered them acceptable to kings, and the conveniency 
with which they supplied the want of morality made 
them popular with the multitude. The arts and mir- 
acles of the holy brotherhood excited the wonder, and 
commanded the reverence of the crowd ; and their tact 
and sycophancy enabled them to become the com- 
panions of kings, the instructors of princes, the con- 
fessors of all classes, and the spies upon the most secret 
recesses of their thoughts. The avaricious character of 
their religious principles enabled them to accept with- 
out scruple the spoils of plundering expeditions, and to 
augment the stores of their wealth by artful tricks and 
pious frauds. The success of their missionary rapacity 
enabled them to build spacious convents, sufficiently 
sumptuous for the accommodation of pious kings who 
wished to abdicate their thrones. The dungeons of 
these sanctuaries sometimes contained a monarch, an 
heir to a throne, or some distinguished personage whom 
usurpation, jealousy, ambition or tyranny had there 
confined ; and sometimes their halls afforded a hospit- 
able asylum for the sick, the indigent, or the refugee 
from oppression. 

The popes having, with their usual skill and pru- 
dence, established the various parts of their political 
machinery in different sections of Europe, and sancti- 
fied them in the eyes of princes and people, eagerly 
watched every opportunity to set them in motion in fa- 
vor of their cherished design. The Saracens, however, 



i: IN FRANCE. ' '259 

entered Europe, and threatened to subjugate It to the 
authority of the religion of Mahomet ; but the hammer 
of Charles Martel, Mayor of France, which alone crushed 
375,000 of the invaders, checked the career of their tri- 
umphant arms. But as the warrior had applied the 
riches of the church to the necessities of the state and 
the relief of his soldiers, a synod of Catholic bishops 
declared that the man who had saved the Catholic 
church from extinction, was doomed to the flames of 
hell on account of his sacrilege. The inspired synod, 
in arriving at this orthodox conclusion was assisted by 
the reported facts, that a. saint while dreaming had seen 
the soul of the savior of Europe, and of Christianity, 
burning in hell, and that upon opening his coffin a 
strong odor of fire and brimstone had been perceived. 
The pope entertained a better opinion of his son Carlo- 
man, whose superstition strikingly resembled the mal- 
ady of insanity. This Mayor of France, while exercis- 
ing the regal authority of his office, was induced by his 
spiritual advisers to resign his dignity ; to consecrate 
the remainder of his life to God by shutting himself up 
in a convent; and to give all his private possessions 
and valuables to the church. The design which 
prompted this intrigue seems to have been, to prepar 
the w r ay for the usurpation of the crown of the Franks, 
by Pepin, the Short. The pope well knew Pepin was 
ambitious of the diadem, and had only been deterred 
from supplanting Childeric III., the King of France, 
— who was but a youth — by fear of Carloman. This ob- 
stacle being removed by the retirement of the devout 
warrior, Pepin consulted Pope Zachary about his inten- 
sions, who replied : !•* He only ought -to ■ be king" who 



260 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 

exercised the royal power." Encouraged "by this papal 
sanction of prospective treason and usurpation, he had 
the office of Mais du Palais abolished, himself pro- 
claimed King of France, and Childeric imprisoned in a 
monastic dungeon, in which he was obliged to pass the 
remainder of his life. 

The interests of the pope and Pepin,, by these art- 
ful machinations, became deeply interwoven. The crit- 
ical state of the Holy See soon developed the sagacity 
and good policy of the pope. The Lombards entered 
Italy, conquered the Exarchate, and threatened the re- 
duction of Rome. Oppressed with these misfortunes, 
the holy father appeared in the camp of Pepin, dressed 
in mourning and covered with ashes, soliciting the as- 
sistance of his arms in the defence of the church, and of 
the Consulate government of Rome. But Pepin was 
more ready to speculate on the misfortunes of the pope 
than to assist him in his distress. The cruelties which 
stained the usurper's crown made him -apprehensive 
of insecurity. He therefore signified to the supplicant 
a willingness to comply with his wishes, if he would 
officially sanction all the acts of usurpation of which he 
had been guilty, crown his two sons, and anoint them 
with the holy oil which the dove had brought from 
heaven. Terms being satisfactorily arranged between 
the two parties, Pepin drew his sword and reconquered 
the greater part of Italy. 

The tricks, sophistry, and eloquence of the monks 
having failed to convert the Saxons to the church, the 
pope was disposed to try the efficacy of the sword. 
Charlemagne, Pepin's son, having succeeded to the 
Frankish throne, and papal influence having gained the 



IN FRANCE. 261 

ascendency in his councils, he was without difficulty 
tempted to unfurl his banner in the cause of the church. 
But the Saxons were courageous warriors, full of the 
love of independence and of liberty ; and when the al- 
ternative of extinction or Catholicism was presented to 
their choice, their proud spirit gave a desperate valor 
to their arms, in the maintenance of their rights of 
existence and of religious liberty. Against superior 
numbers, they defended the integrity of their empire 
for thirty-three years ; and had not their chief advised 
to the contrary, would rather have suffered extermina- 
tion than to have submitted to a religion baptized in 
blood, founded upon fraud and treachery, and forced 
upon their acceptance against their reason and con- 
science, and by a sword reeking with the blood of their 
fellow countrymen. The arms of Charlemagne, and 
the religion and policy of the pope triumphed ; but 
not until the land was depopulated, the country con- 
verted into a desert, and the cost of subjugation out- 
balanced the value of the victory. 

The competition between aspiring candidates for the 
opulent bishopric of Rome had often been productive 
of turmoil and bloodshed. The favorite and intended 
successor of Adrian I. having been disappointed by the 
unexpected election of Leo III., his exasperated adher- 
ents attacked the sacred procession on the occasion, as- 
saulted the chosen vicar of Christ, and, as it is alleged, 
cut out his tongue, dug out his eyes, and left him dead 
on the ground. But a miracle, it is averred, inter- 
posed in his behalf ; restored his life, eyes and tongue ; 
and enabled him to escape a repetition of the outrage 
by gaining the invisible precincts of the Vatican. 



262 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

After having received this' assistance from heaven he 
invoked the temporal aid of the Duke of Spoleto, and 
of the friendly interposition of Charlemagne in his 
favor. By the influence of these secular princes he 
was enabled to ascend the sacerdotal throne, and to ex- 
ercise his spiritual authority in banishing his competi- 
tors and their adherents. 

On a visit of Charlemagne to Eome, after these events, 
the pope abruptly crowned him with a diadem, invested 
him with the regalia of the Caesars, anointed him with 
the holy oil which the dove had conveyed from Para- 
adise, and pronounced him the pious Caesar crowned by 
God. The emperor who, professing to have been aston- 
ished at the pope's singular conduct, nevertheless took 
an oath to preserve the faith and privileges of the 
church. Agreeably to this oath he entrusted the clergy 
with temporal and civil jurisdiction, expended more 
cost and labor in the construction of cathedrals than on 
useful undertakings, and as the demons of the air had 
admonished the payment of tithes he enforced their 
exaction with extreme rigor. The favor and liberal 
indulgence of the pope enabled the emperor, consist- 
ently with his Catholicism to enjoy the possession of nine 
wives, to divert his capricious fancy with numberless 
mistresses, to prolong the celibacy of his daughters that 
it might extend the period of an illicit commerce, and 
to become the father of numerous illegitimate children, 
whom, however, in atonement for his indiscretions, he 
consecrated to the priesthood. 

The barbarity and usurpations of which Charlemagne 
was guilty, in the enlargement of his vast empire, 
naturally made him suspicious of the loyalty of his 



. .; IN FRANCE. 263 

subjects ; and the frequent outbursts which disturbed 
the peace of certain sections excited his most painful 
fears for the stability of his throne. To prevent the 
disorganization of a power which he had constructed 
with so much labor, but endangered with so much 
crime, he imprudently scorned the wisdom of adopting 
concessionary measures, and had recourse to the artifices, 
of priestcraft. Dividing the empire between two of 
his sons, he had them crowned and anointed with the. 
celestial oil, in expectation that these superstitious cere- 
monies would excite in the minds of his subjects such 
reverence for the imperial dignity as would secure in 
its favor their devout allegiance. But this arrange- 
ment excluding his eldest son — the issue of a divorced 
wife — from an equal participation with his brothers in 
the administration of the government, excited him to 
rebel against the authority of his father. His attempt 
to obtain by arms the justice denied by parental author- 
ity was, in consequence of the loyalty of the papal 
political machinery, unsuccessful ; and the injured son 
was obliged to expiate the guilt of his unfilial insubor- 
dination by serving the church in the capacity of a 
monk, and passing the remainder of his days in a 
monastic dungeon. 

This conspiracy was not the only result that was pro- 
duced by the policy of Charlemagne, in substituting 
superstition in the place of justice in his efforts to con- 
ciliate popular dissatisfaction. While it lent a prop to 
the governmental structure, it furnished an instrument 
for undermining its foundation. The division of the 
monarchy gave occasion, after Charlemagne's death, to 
fraternal disputes and civil conflicts ; and as these dis- 



26£ PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

orders favored the pope's ambitious desire to succeed to 
the crown and dominion of the Caesars, they were kept 
active by his machinery until the empire was disinte- 
grated. 

The last survivor of the Carlovingian dynasty was 
Charles, Duke of Lorraine. The subjects of the realm 
at that period had become greatly dissatisfied concern- 
ing the oppressive privileges which the clergy enjoyed, 
as well as with the impoverishing exactions which they 
extorted from their industry. With these popular 
grievances the temper and disposition of Charles en- 
gaged his warmest sympathies. Pope John XVI., 
elected in 986, perceiving that the heir presumptive to 
the throne would, when he acceded to power, listen to 
the complaints and lessen the burdens of his subjects ; 
and acting on the 'historic motive of the Holy See, in 
making rulers its tools, and changing dynasties to suit 
its purposes, induced the Frankish nobility to proclaim 
Hugh Capet King of France. But before this syco- 
phantic papal favorite could be crowned king, and 
anointed with the holy oil, he was obliged to swear to 
preserve the clergy in all the privileges and immuni- 
ties which they enjoyed. Against this formidable con- 
spiracy Charles found himself powerless ; and after 
making some demonstrations against the usurper, retired 
to Lyons, which place was capable of withstanding a 
vigorous siege. With great skill and energy, but with- 
out any nattering success, his adversary assailed the 
strong-built fortifications. The success which valor de- 
nied was, however, accorded by treachery. The bishop 
of the city having entered into secret negotiations w T ith 
Capet, the gates were thrown open at midnight ; and 



IN FRANCE. 265 

the usurper entering the precincts amid the stillness of 
the hour captured the royal family, surprised Charles 
in bed and threw him into prison, from which he was 
never liberated. The Capitiaa dynasty, thus founded 
in fraud, violence and usurpation, and unsupported by 
a shadow of legal right, stands forth in history as the 
grand champion of the legitimacy of kings, or their di- 
vine right to rule by virtue of their descent, independ- 
ent of the consent of the governed. 

The dynasties of empire's and the political events of 
nations are so intimately connected with the domestic 
affairs of royal families, that in order to control the one, 
papal intrigue has constantly intermeddled with the 
other. Robert IL, who became king of France in 997, 
married Bertha, his cousin, a lady of inestimable qual- 
ities. The royal pair were a model of connubial love- 
liness and felicity ; but when an heir had completed the 
perfection of their happiness the pope interfered, and by 
the exercise of his sacred authority, embittered the re- 
mainder of their existence. Robert not having pur- 
chased of the church an indulgence for marrying a 
cousin, Pope Sylvester IL pronounced the conjugal 
union illegal, and commanded the king to abandon his 
wife. To be guilty of an offence of such a henious 
character against the most amiable of women ; to act 
in violation of all his matrimonial vows and obligations ; 
to spurn his lawful wife as a prostitute, and to declare 
his children bastards, was a complication of iniquity 
which Robert declared to the pope that he would rather 
die than commit. But the obdurate and savage-hearted 
holy father, whom the view of no misfortune could 
move, in order to reduce the king to obedience pro- 
23 



26$ PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 

ceeded to pronounce a sentence of excommunication 
against him. This act was designed to call into requi- 
sition all the appliances of the pope's machinery in 
Hasting the happiness of two persons, whose worth was 
unequaled in the kingdom, and perhaps unsurpassed in 
the records of history. Accordingly the churches were 
draped in mourning ; the picures of the images of the 
saints shrouded in black ; the bells were tolled night 
arid day ; religious worship was suspended in the king- 
dom ; and no funeral ceremony allowed to be per- 
formed. The immaculate Bertha was declared polluted ; 
stories were circulated that she had given birth to a 
monster, which had the head of a savage and the tail 
of a serpent j the poor, on whom she had been accus- 
tomed to bestow charity, now fled at her approach ; her 
domestics broke the costly vases which adorned the 
palace, and taking the viands from the royal table 
dashed them into the fire. Consternation seized the 
populace ; and priests, courtiers and people fled alike 
from the sight of the amiable couple, as if they were 
destructive monsters. At length, through the repeated 
requests of Bertha, Robert agreed to a separation, and 
allowed her to retire to a convent. This act, by which 
he placed his wife at the mercy of licentious priests, 
conciliated the vengeance of the sacerdotal monster. 

During the reign of Philip II., who became king of 
France in 1180, the province of Languedoc enjoyed an 
eminent degree of liberty and prosperity. The char- 
ters which the subjects had obtained from their princes 
secured them in the enjoyment of many important 
civil rights, fortified by such jealous guards as effectu- 
ally protected them against the encroachments of exe- 



IN FRANCE. 267 

cutive power. This liberality in their political consti- 
tution encouraged liberality in religious inquiry, which 
consequently led to doubts of the pope's right to tem- 
poral power. At the flourishing city of Albi these 
progressive ideas assumed a definite shape in an organ- 
ization of the people, which received the appellation of 
the Albigenses. The pope finding this sectary increas- 
ing in numbers and popularity, in spite of the vigor- 
ous counteracting efforts of his appliances of bishops, 
priests and monks, ordered Raymond VI., Count of 
Toulouse, to compel the Albigenses, by force of arms, 
to change their religious views. As Raymond of Rogers, 
Count of Beziers, nephew of Raymond VI., had de- 
clared in favor of the reformer, the Count of Toulouse 
refuse to oblige the pope by taking up arms against the 
Count of Beziers. On account of this determination, 
dictated by a high and delicate sense of duty and honor, 
the pope pronounced sentence of excommunication 
against him. In addition to this insulting manifesto, 
he commissioned his legate to raise an army of the cross, 
for the purpose of exterminating the reformers and 
their allies. This authorized desperado, through the 
energetic co-operation of the pope's political machinery, 
soon collected a numerous army of crusaders; and im- 
posing on them a horrible oath that they would exter- 
minate the Albigenses without pity for the cries or tears 
of their wives or children, immediately commenced the 
work of blood and devastation. As this army of mur- 
derers approached the city of Carcassonne, an order 
was given not to leave one stone upon another, and to 
put to death every man, woman, youth and infant. 
The butchery was frightful, and mixed with the most 



268 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

fiendish acts. To arrest the horrible work Raymond of 
Rogers offered to resign his authority. With execrable 
treachery the legate pretended to be willing to negoti- 
ate ; but no sooner had he betrayed the Count into his 
power than he incarcerated him in a dungeon, where 
he died after experiencing years of suffering. After 
the removal of Raymond by this base treachery, Caros- 
sonne fell; and thirty thousand men, women and chil- 
dren were butchered in one day. Tired of the terrible 
carnage, or disgusted at its atrociousness, the chiefs of 
the army of the cross declared to the legate, that among 
the crowd they could not distinguish the heretic from 
the Catholic. " Kill on," replied the holy legate, " God 
will know those which are his." The murderous army 
moved on ; blood flowed at every step ; at Beziers 
sixty thousand were put to death ; nor did the car- 
nage cease until the inhabitants of almost every town 
in Languedoc, without distinction of age, sex or 
creed, were weltering in their gore. As an express 
reward to Simon de Monfort for having surpassed 
all others in hardihood and cruelty on those days of 
blood, the pope bestowed upon him the devastated do- 
mains as a fief of the church. But the soil sown with 
the bones of heroes, and enriched with the blood of pa- 
triots, was prolific of formidable avengers ; who con- 
stantly shook the throne, and rendered it a calamity to 
its blood-stained occupant. His son succeeded him ; 
but not being able to defend it against the uprising of 
the people, it was incorporated into the French empire ; 
but still the war raged, until 1226, when a peace was 
concluded with Raymond IV., upon condition of his 
purchasing absolution at an enormous price, and ceding 
the greater portion of his domains to France. 



IN FRANCE. 269 

In 1285, when Philip IV. ascended the throne of 
France, the despotism of Rome had perpetually en- 
croached on the rights of the sovereignty of the gov- 
ernment, and by an insidious policy subjected it more 
and more to its influence. Among the privileges which 
the popes arrogated was the right to arbitrate the contro- 
versies which arose between independent sovereignties. 
A dispute having sprung up between Philip IV-., of 
France, and Edward I., of England, Pope Boniface 
VIII., wishing to enjoy the advantage of dictating the 
terms of adjustment, arbitrarily attempted to interfere 
in the controversy. This officious intermeddling in the 
affairs of a sovereign state was resisted by Philip with 
patriotic firmness. The irascible pope, transported with 
rage at the irreverence and independence of Philip, 
and at the recollection of his liberal governmental 
views and measures, interdicted all religious worship in 
his dominions, and suspended the dispensation of the 
means of grace. But the policy of Philip, in introduc- 
ing the "third estates," or deputies of the people, which 
had been instituted by Charlemagne, but discontinued by 
Hugh Capet, and in his extending the jurisdiction 
of parliament over the crowned heals, had fortified 
him in the affections of his subjects, while the papal 
establishments, in extracting the life-blood from the in- 
dustrial classes, had weakened popular attachment to 
the Holy See. The liberality of the king nullified 
the virtue of the Vatican thunder ; and the generous sup- 
port which he commanded from the people, and from a 
faction of the priests, enabled him to resist the inter- 
meddling of the pope with the rights of the crown • 

nay more, as the tyranny of the holy father had ren- 
23* 



270 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

dered him. unpopular in Italy, it placed him at the mer- 
cy of a prince whom he had insulted and exasperated," 
and who was capable of taking revenge. Accordingly, 
emissaries were sent to Rome who, seizing the holy 
father while he was defiantly seated in the apostolic 
chair, dragged him from his despotic throne, and cast 
him into prison. From this ignominious predicament 
he was, however, shortly afterwards released ; but as 
his character was black with crime, it was determined 
to summon a council for his deposition. Depressed 
with the expectation of certain degradation, chagrined 
and mortified at the loss of his dignity and the insults 
to his holiness, and having refused all sustenance in 
confinement for fear of being poisoned, his constitution 
broke down, and he died in a paroxysm of rage and fear 
before arrangements could be completed for his trial. 
According to Catholic authority, " he entered like a 
fox, reigned like a tiger, and died like a dog." His 
condition after his death may be variously conjectured 
by theologians according to their different creeds ; but 
Dante, who was a Catholic, places him in hell between 
Pope Nicholas III. and Pope Clement V. 

During the reign of Louis XII., who became King of 
France in 1498, the duplicity and treachery which has 
in general characterized the history of the papal in- 
trigues obtained an illustration in the conduct of the 
popes, which would have disgraced the chiefs of bar- 
baric nations. Louis, upon receiving the royal diadem, 
pardoned the wrongs which had been done to him 
while he was duke, relieved the industry of his sub- 
jects by reducing the burden of their taxation, elevated 
the literary standard of the nation by the introduction 



IN FRANCE. 271 

of scientific collections, and displayed a nobleness of 
disposition, and a capacity for the exercise of the gov- 
ernmental functions prophetic of the highest degree of 
national prosperity and greatness. Pope Julius II. 
before his election, had professed the warmest friend- 
ship for Louis, and secured his influence in gaining the 
sacerdotal crown. Having succeeded in this strategic 
measure, his ambition led him to grasp at another object 
which he conceived Louis's friendship might be made 
accessory in realizing. That object was the oblitera- 
tion of the Venitian republic. He accordingly formed 
a holy league, called the " League of Cambray," with 
France, Spain and Germany, for the accomplishment of 
his object. Faithful to his obligations, Louis fought 
with distinguished bravery in the pope's cause. His 
heroism won encomiums from all but from the holy 
father, who was too jealous not to hate superiority, too 
selfish for sincere friendship, and too sagacious not to 
perceive that in the further developments of his aggres- 
sive designs he was bound to encounter in the heroism 
and honor of Louis a powerful antagonist. The form- 
idable valor of the Venitian republicans in the defence 
of their government, the mutual distrust among the 
allies, which they managed to excite, and the con- 
flicting interpretations of the terms of the compact 
eventually dissolved the holy league. But the finesse 
of the pope, and the adroitness with which he engineered 
his machinery, gave him the ability to conciliate his 
difficulties with the republicans, and of inducing that 
republic to unite with him in a league with Spain, 
England and Switzerland, against France. Germany 
and France then called a council at Pisa, for reforma- 



272 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

tion in the head and body of the church ; at the bar 
of which they summoned the pope, to explain his con- 
duct. But scorning the mandate of the synod, he con- 
vened a council at the Lateran ; and causing a decree 
to be passed declaring Louis to have forfeited his crown, 
excommunicated him, and interdicted the celebration of 
religious worship in his kingdom. Louis was now as- 
saulted by the English at Guingate, by the Spanish at 
Navarre, by the Swiss at Dijon, while his kingdom was 
internally convulsed by treacherous priests, crafty 
spies, false friends, and unpatriotic Catholics. Unable 
to contend against these formidable antagonists, he had 
to surrendered all his possessions beyond the Alps 
and the Pyrenees. 

Pope Leo X., who succeeded Julius II., governed by 
motives of nepotism and ambition, concocted a scheme 
for obtaining for his family the kingdom of Naples and 
the duchies of Ferrara and Urbino. At the same time 
Louis entertained a design of reconquering Milan, 
which he inherited from his grandmother, Valentina 
Visconti. The success of these schemes depended on 
the mutual friendship of the projectors. The pope, in 
order to secure the confidence of Louis, entered into a 
secret alliance with him, and pretended to favor all his 
plans. But while he was nattering his hopes, he was 
preparing to ruin his cause. To weaken his resources 
he secretly sent Bambo, his legate, to Venice to de- 
tach its alliance from France ; and though this treach- 
erous mission was unsuccessful, yet when the French 
appeared on the confines of Italy, he increased his 
power by the purchase of Modena, and finally reduced 
Louis to a formal submission. 



IN FRANCE. 273 

In 1515 Francis I, ascended the throne, and immedi- 
ately commenced preparations for the re-conquest of 
Milan. Pope Leo X., to defeat this enterprise formed 
an alliance with Milan, Florence, Artois, Germany and 
Switzerland. A bloody battle ensued in which tigers 
and giants seemed to struggle with each other, and 
which was protracted without intermission for two 
days and nights. France recovered Milan ; the pope 
was reduced to the last extremity ; yet the pru- 
dence or superstition of Francis concluded a con- 
cordat with him, upon such liberal terms as excited 
the dissatisfaction of France, and the surprise of the 
world. 

After this signal and generous triumph the bellige- 
rant powers became reconciled. This event was hailed 
by the friends of humanity with united acclamations. 
But the Holy See, whose policy has ever been to foster 
wars and controversies between governments, that it 
might improve the consequent confusion and disorder 
in aggrandizing its power, received the news of pacifi- 
cation with chagrin and disappointment. 

But Milan, which had cost France so much to win, 
was soon lost by the conquest of Charles V., Emperor 
of Germany and King of Spain. This prince having 
formed a league with Pope Leo X. against Francis I., 
i — which league was afterwards joined by Henry VIII., 
of England — active hostilities were soon commenced. 
After a war of four disastrous years, the emperor cap- 
tured Francis, obliged him to relinquish his claims to 
Naples, Milan, Genoa, Asti, Flanders and Artois; to 
dismember his kingdom by surrendering Burgundy; 
and to ransom himself by the payment of 2,000,000 



274 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

crowns. The popularity and victorious march of the 
German emperor now alarmed the jealous fears of the 
holy father, Pope Clement VII., who, apprehending in 
them his own subjugation, united in an alliance with 
Francis I., the former antagonist of the Roman See, and 
with all the Italian powers, to arrest the dangerous tri- 
umphs of his new rival. The allies succeeded in 
humbling the pride of Charles ; but in the midst of 
their victories a plague, more fearful than their foes, 
broke out in the French army, and thinned its ranks 
with fearful mortality. This circumstance led to the 
peace of Cambray. But the ambition of Francis, and 
his indomitable thirst for the reconquest of Milan, soon 
led him to violate the terms of this covenant. Confed- 
erating with Solyman II., Sultan of the Ottoman em- 
pire, he drove Charles before his forces. The interest 
of the Holy See being threatened by the successes of 
the allied army, and perhaps in the event of the tri- 
umph of Charles not perfectly secure, Pope Paul III. 
interposed his friendly mediation, and induced the bel- 
ligerents to conclude a truce of ten years. 

In 1559 Francis II., son of Francis I., succeeded to 
the crown of France. Amid the nattering successes of 
the papal intrigues, the rapid progress of Protestantism 
in Europe, and the fearless boldness of its advocates, 
occasioned great uneasiness to the Holy See. Scorning 
the mild but able services of reason and concili-ation, it 
counselled the most sanguinary measures. The records 
of the times are consequently filled with accounts of 
disorders, assassinations, massacres, and the most deplor- 
able conflicts. The French nation was divided into 
two great factions ; the one in favor of Catholicism, the 



IN FRANCE. 



275 



other in favor of Protestantism. By means of the 
papal machinery of bishops, abbots, priests, monks and 
spies, the Catholics were made to believe that the relig- 
ious disorders which had convulsed the empire were 
but a prelude to an intended extermination of all 
Bomanists. To narrow-minded bigots, who absurdly 
believed that their church afforded the only possible 
method of escaping the pangs of purgatory, and of ob- 
taining eternal happiness, all the zeal which their hopes 
and fears of eternity could inspire was awakened in 
the defence of their religion. "While the Protestants 
who, on the other hand, believed that Catholicism was 
idolatry, subversive of Christianity, demoralizing in its 
tendency, and destructive of the rights of conscience, 
reason and religious liberty, became equally heated in 
the defence of their faith. Both factions had been edu- 
cated in intolerent principles ; in the belief that error 
of opinion was perilous to the soul ; that it rendered a 
person a proper object of aversion and denunciation; 
and, that a difference of opinion was a sufficient justifi- 
cation of hatred and persecution. Both factions being 
educated in the principles of bigotry and intolerance, 
nursed amid convulsions and barbarity, embittered 
against each other by mutual provocations and injury, 
were incapable of pacification by just and reasonable 
concession. The Catholics, having the power, were 
enabled to inflict on the Protestants the deeper injuries ; 
and, to the credit of the Protestants it will ever be, re- 
membered, that they sought not to exterminate their 
foes, but to obtain equal rights with them. 

The Cardinal of Lorraine, who had supervision of the 
clergy, and Henry, Duke of Guise, the uncle of the 



276 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

king, who directed the military affairs, were both un- 
compromising in their hostility to the Protestants. 
Antony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and his brother 
Louis, Prince of Conde, being excluded from the gov- 
ernmental administration, united with the Calvinists for 
the overthrow of the regime, under pretext of religious 
zeal. Catherine de Medici, mother of the king, and 
niece of Pope Clement VIL, jealous of a power in 
which she could not participate, favored the designs of 
Louis, and employed her art in stimulating the opposi- 
tion of the reformers to the administration of the Duke 
of Guise. Under these circumstances a conspiracy 
against the duke was formed at Amboise, which led to 
a murderous onslaught, and inaugurated civil war. 
Louis was captured and condemned to death. 

In the midst of the distraction of conflicting parties 
Francis I. died, and Charles IX., in 1560, succeeded to 
the throne at the age of ten years. Catherine de Medici, 
his mother, with the acquiesence of parliament, admin- 
istered the affairs of government. Although a bigoted 
Catholic, yet having no principle but the love of sway, 
she was ready to support any faction or creed that ad- 
ministered to her power, or removed an obstacle to her 
ambition. Without profound views of policy, she was 
incapable of either originating a great national object, 
or of supporting it by adequate measures. So indomit- 
able was her passion for dominion, that it as much ob- 
durated her maternal feelings as it disqualified her for 
a judicious regent. She even studied to incapacitate 
her sons for the exercise of the governmental functions, 
and to divert their attention from the state of national 
affairs. With this end in view she involved them in 



Itf FRANCE. 277 

the grossest dissipation, and strove to keep them in a 
perpetual whirl of voluptuous intoxication. Perfect in 
the art of dissimulation, she cajoled Catholics and 
Protestants. Anxious to obtain the support of all par- 
ties, she alternately favored the one and the other. To 
embarrass the Duke of Guise she threw everything into 
confusion ; but to conciliate the Protestants she had to 
redeem her pledges ; and in spite of the opposition of 
the court, to issue an act of toleration in their favor. 

The lines of party became now distinctly drawn. 
The Protestant faction, headed by the Prince of Conde, 
and Coligny, admiral of France, was assisted by the 
English ; and the Catholic faction^ headed by Francis, 
Duke of Guise, was assisted by Spain. At a season of 
intense public excitement the Duke of Guise, with a 
band of adherents, was passing a barn in which some 
Calvinists were singing psalms. Irritating taunts were 
mutually exchanged between the two parties. This 
exasperating conduct brought on a collision, in which 
sixty Calvinists were killed, the flames of civil war ig- 
nited, and the empire divided and distracted by the 
hostile conflicts of the two religious parties. The duke, 
at the head of his forces, pursued the Protestants with 
pitiless revenge, and the Protestants retaliated his cru- 
elties with fearful retribution. Desperate conflicts per- 
petually took place, and the land was drenched with 
blood. The bigotry of both factions stained their cause 
with deplorable excesses. At the battle of Dreux the 
belligerents came to a decisive engagement. The 
Protestants were defeated, and Conde captured. The 
Duke of Guise designing to crush Protestantism by 
striking a blow at Orleans, its centre, commenced ac- 
24 



278 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

tive preparations for the enterprise ; but while he was 
engaged in them he was shot by Poltrot de Mercy, a 
Huguenot nobleman. Advising peace in his last mo- 
ments, terms of conciliation were accordingly offered 
the Protestants, which being accepted, tranquillity was 
restored to the empire. 

The arts of Catherine, the intolerance of Catholicism, 
and the suspicion and fervor of Protestantism, soon 
convulsed the nation again with the disorders of civil 
war. Aspiring to rule with more absolute power than 
she had hitherto been able, Catherine conceived the 
idea of having the king, whom she held helplessly under 
her control, declared to be of competent age for the 
exercise of the royal functions. This accomplished, 
she made a tour through the empire in company with, 
him. At Bayonne the young king had an interview with 
his sister, wife of Philip II., King of Spain. The sus- 
picions of the Caivinists were immediately excited ; 
they precipitately armed themselves for defence, and 
formed a conspiracy to assassinate the king. Civil war 
consequently broke out. A severe and bloody engage- 
ment took place at St. Dennis. The losses were heavy 
on both sides ; but Montmorency, a prominent Catholic 
leader being killed, another treaty of peace was con- 
cluded. But the artifice and dissimulation of Catherine 
only made treaties which contained the elements of fu- 
ture wars. They satisfied neither the Catholics nor the 
Protestants ; and were evaded by both. Contrary to 
the stipulations of the treaty of St. Dennis, the Caivin- 
ists still continued to hold places which they had con- 
tracted to surrender, and to continue correspondence 
with England and Holland, which they had agreed to 



• IN FRANCE. ' '279 

"break off. The inflammable material of religious 
bigotry, together with these circumstances, provoked 
another intestine war. The Duke of Anjou, afterwards 
Henry III., commanded the Catholic faction ; and 
Conde, and Admiral Coligny headed the Protest- 
ant faction. At the battle of Jarnac, Conde was cap- 
tured and shot; and at the battle of Montcontour 
Coligny was defeated. Amid these discomfitures of the 
Protestants a peace was offered them on terms of such 
extraordinary generosity by the Catholics, that they 
were unconditionally accepted. 

Henry of Navarre, Conde's son, subsequently Henry 
IV., on hearing of his father's death swore to revenge 
his murder; but the peace which had just been con- 
cluded rendered him destitute of means and arms. His 
mother, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, after the death of her 
husband, Conde, King of Navarre, had, in order to 
avoid the intrigues of Catherine, retired from the 
French court to Beam, her hereditary possessions. In 
this retreat she declared herself in favor of the Hugue- 
nots. When her son was but eleven years old the 
Guises, in conjunction with Philip II., King of Spain, 
devised a plot for depriving the young prince of his 
hereditary possessions in lower Navarre, and of placing 
him in the hands of the latter tyrant. The sagacity of 
Elizabeth, Queen of England, however, detected this 
conspiracy in time to frustrate it. In consequence of 
this base machination, Queen Jeanne d' Albert placed 
-her son Henry, when he was but sixteen years old, at 
the head of a Protestant army, and caused him to take 
an oath to shed the last drop of his blood in the defence 
of his -kingdom and religion. ' 



280 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

Henry Guise, son of Francis Guise, Duke of Lorraine, 
became the commander of the royal army. The bloody 
Catherine, in collusion with this ambitious and bigoted 
duke, concocted a plot for the total extermination of all 
the Protestants in the French empire. The peace which 
had been concluded with the Protestants at Jarnac and 
Montcontour was but the preliminary measure in the 
accomplishment of this horrible project. The terms it 
accorded were so surprisingly advantageous to the con- 
quered forces, that the more cautious Protestants re- 
garded it with suspicion. The next device in this insid- 
ious plot, was a specious pretence of uniting all parties 
in interest and harmony by the bonds of two mar- 
riages, the one between the king, Charles IX., and 
Elizabeth, daughter of Maximilian II., Emperor of Ger- 
many, and the other between Margaret, the queen's sis- 
ter, and Henry, Prince of Navarre. All the distin- 
guished Protestant leaders were earnestly invited to be 
present at the celebration of the royal nuptials. Fear- 
ing treachery many of them, however, declined the 
honor. Amid the magnificence and festivity of the 
occasion Queen Jeanne d' Albert was poisoned. Shortly 
after Coligny was wounded by a shot from a window. 
The king swore to punish the villain who had attempted 
the assassination. His mother assured him Coligny had 
the same designs on his life. Bursting into rage he 
exclaimed : " Kill every Protestant — kill Coligny." 
Catherine then held her council of blood. All having 
been concerted for a general massacre, on Bartholomew's 
eve, at midnight of the day fixed, the church bells an- 
nounced the signal for commencing the horrible butch- 
ery. Wild shrieks and murderous clamor immediately 



IN FRANCE. 281 

shook the air. "Spare none; it is God's, it is Cathe- 
rine's it is the king's order." shouted the Catholic 
leaders as they led on their gangs of remorseless bigots. 
In the red glare of terrifying flambeaux, were seen 
daggers dripping with the blood of men, women, and 
even babes. The people without means of defence or 
flight saw they were doomed to perish without mercy 
or revenge. Coligny awakened from his sleep by the 
terrific yells and screams that filled the air, arose from 
his bed and opened the door of his mansion. Meeting 
the assassins, he courteously invited them into his 
chamber. "Companions," said he, " finish your work. 
Take the blood sixty years of war have respected : 
Coligny will forgive you. My life is of little conse- 
quence, and though I would rather lose it in defending 
you, yet take it." Touched at these words, and his 
calm, majestic countenance, the ruffians fell upon their 
knees ; one of them threw away his dagger ; another 
embraced the knees of his intended victim, and the 
courage of all dissolved into tears. Besme, the com- 
mander of the gang, who had waited in the court for 
Coligny's head, becoming impatient entered the cham- 
ber, and seeing the assassins overcome by humanity de- 
nounced them as traitors to Catherine. At this denun- 
ciation one of them averting his head, drew his sword 
and plunged it into Coligny's breast. For thirty days 
in every part of the kingdom the most atrocious acts 
were perpetrated. Doors were burst open ; men and 
women assassinated night and day ; babes torn from 
their mother's arms were murdered before their parents' 
eyes. Over this dreadful calamity the friends and foes 
of France might have together wept; but Rome was 
24* 



282 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

illuminated, cannons were fired in its honor, churches 
were shaken with the peals of thanksgiving, priests 
formed themselves into holy processions to testify their 
joy, jubilees were proclaimed, and the pope, jealous of 
the authorship of atrocities that shook the world with 
horror, had medals prepared to immortalize his right to 
the honor of having originated the most horrible mas- 
sacre on record. When we consider the atrociousness 
of the massacre, and the exultations of the holy father, we 
are at a loss which most to pity, the victims of the catas- 
trophe, or the fiend that rejoiced over it. After the in- 
cidents of that day Henry of Navarre and the Prince 
of Conde had to profess Catholicism in order to save 
their lives. This device defeating the designs of Cath- 
erine on the life of Henry, she next added to the 
ignominy of her character by attempting to dissolve 
the marriage which, through her influence, had just 
been consummated. Foiled in this scheme, she then 
sought to poison the happiness of the royal pair. To 
hold Henry spell-bound in the power of her fascinations, 
she spread around him all the voluptuous allurements 
of sensual pleasure. But the native magnanimity of 
his spirit broke the thralls of her enchantment; and 
secretly escaping from a corrupt and besotted court, he 
recanted his Catholicism, and placed himself at the 
head of the Protestant League as King of Navarre ; a 
title which he had rightfully assumed since his mother's 
death. The revenge which was now rife on the lips of 
thousands, for slaughtered relatives and citizens, and 
the portentous disasters which overhung the empire, con- 
vinced Catherine of her error ; and Charles, tracing the 
'calamities of the nation to her ambition, resolved. to 



IN FRANCE, 283 

atone for his past neglect by governing the empire 
himself: hut death too soon deprived him of an oppor- 
tunity to make this atonement. 

On the death of Charles IX., Henry IIL, his brother, 
succeeded to the throne. But being then King of 
Poland, Catherine, his mother, was permitted to govern 
in his name until he should be able to assume the ad- 
ministration himself. Catherine immediately concluded 
a peace with the Huguenots, which granted them relig- 
ious liberty But this liberal concession exasperated 
the Catholics, and afforded Henry Guise a pretext for 
perfecting a league which had been projected by Car- 
dinal Lorraine, The professed object of this league was 
to defend Catholicism, and extirpate religious liberty;- 
but it had also a secret object, which was to usurp the 
throne. After Henry IIL had returned to his domains, 
his profligate disposition, and his want of decision and 
firmness made him the dupe of his mother's intrigues. 
By her machinations he was kept imprisoned in the 
royal palace, occupied with frivolous intrigues and stu- 
pefied with debauch, even while dissension was shaking 
his government, and treason plotting his downfall. Be- 
sides the unpopularity which his neglect of national 
affairs engendered in the minds of his subjects, his 
marriage with the Countess of Lorraine, giving the 
Guises increased influence in the government, added 
suspicion to the popular discontent. 

By the support of the papal machinery, Henry 
Guise became sufficiently powerful to dictate laws to the 
king. He obliged him to annul all provisions in favor 
of the reformers, and carried his insolence so far that 
the king forbid him to approach the capitol. It was 



284 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

now discovered that the duke intended to kidnap the 
king, imprison him in a monastic dungeon , and usurp 
the imperial authority. Conscious of his power, the 
duke boldly violated the king's command, that he should 
not enter Paris. At this defiance the king called on 
his troops for assistance ; hut so effectively had the 
pope's machinery operated, that the people attacked the 
royal troops, drove them away, and thirty thousand pa- 
pists sprung to arms in the defence of the duke. Such 
was the helplessness of the king that he had to fly for 
safety to Chartres r and to conclude a treaty with his 
enemy. Upon the assembling of the Estates of Blois, 
they decided that the duke was too powerful to be 
brought to trial, but that his open treason would justify 
the king in having him assassinated. Appearing to be 
reconciled to him he then partook of the eucharist in 
company with him ; but while he did so, gave secret 
orders for his assassination. In a few days after this event 
the duke was stabbed as he entered the royal palace,, 
and Cardinal Lorraine met the same fate in a dungeon. 
The severe disappointments which these melancholy 
events occasioned to the hopes of the Papal See, gave 
rise to a holy league against Henry III., headed by the 
Duke of Mayenne, brother of the Duke of Guise, 
which league was supported by all the resources of 
Kome. Every department of the papal machinery was 
now set in the most vigorous action. Paris and the 
principal cities of France were incited to declare against 
the king. The Serbonne, the highest Catholic university 
in the empire, absolved the subjects from their alle- 
giance to him ; the pope threatened him with excom- 
munication ; and his assassination was publicly preached 



IN FRANCE. 285 

in the churches. But by a fortunate coalition with 
Henry of Navarre the king defeated the pope and his 
league, re-captured Paris, and established again his 
authority in the empire. Yet the Catholic church, 
which never forgives an offence, and scruples at no 
means to remove an obstacle, found a Dominican monk 
who executed her vengeance by the assassination of 
the king. 

Henry III. left no male heirs ; consequently Henry 
of Navarre became the legitimate inheritor of the 
throne of France. The papal machinery which in vain 
had been called into requisition to destroy him, was 
now set in vigorous operation to prevent him from 
establishing a legal right to his heritage. The Duke 
of Mayenne, at the head of the Catholics, declared 
against him ; Philip II., king of Spain, claimed the 
crown ; and several unsuccessful attempts were made to 
assassinate him. But the valor and sagacity of Henry 
defeated his enemies, and triumphed over all difficul- 
ties. The papal machinery was, however, still formid- 
able; and Henry IV., convinced that the blood of his 
subjects must continue to flow as long as they were 
governed by a Protestant sovereign, decided to profess 
the Catholic faith, which of all others he must have 
sincerely detested. By this politic act of humiliation 
he acquired for his subjects political security and entire 
religious liberty, and obtained from the pope a conces- 
sion to his right to the crown. But in sacrificing prin- 
ciple to expediency he did not conciliate papal malice, 
nor secure tranquillity to his reign. Conspiracies were 
rife, female intrigue abounded, bigotry and intolerance 
gave birth to much violence and disorder, and finally, 



286 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

the long-premeditated assassination of Henry IV. was 
accomplished by Eavaillac, who stabbed him to the 
heart with a double-edged sword, the papal symbol of 
spiritual and temporal power. 

The papal machinery during the past reigns had de- 
moralized the nation. The national policy was charac- 
terized by a system of falsehood, corruption and intrigue. 
Princes of the blood were excluded from the throne, on 
account of their liberal proclivities. Innocent men, 
women and children were imprisoned, murdered and 
burnt. Female intrigue, the bane of national peace 
and virtue predominated in political circles ; and pub- 
lic robbery and extravagance laid the foundation of a 
debt which ultimately broke down the government. 

Under Louis XIII., who became King of France in 
1610, the papal machinery was directed by Cardinal 
Richelieu, who governed the king ; by M. Tellier, 
his confessor, and Madame Maitenon, his prostitute, 
who governed the cabinet. Richelieu gave boldness 
and craft to the national policy, and consummated the 
governmental absoluteness which had been initiated by 
Louis XI. Division of power being more friendly to 
justice and republicanism than consolidation, the papal 
political machinery has always vigorously, as well as 
universally, labored to defeat the first and encourage 
the second. But what is unfriendly to republicanism is 
destructive to national prosperity ; and consequently 
the papal intrigues and appliances in favor of absolute- 
ness in France destroyed the greatness of the nation. 

The political security and religious liberty which 
Henry IV. had secured to the subjects were annulled 
by the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, and Catholic in- 



IN FRANCE. 287 

tolerance again domineered over the lives and fortunes 
of Protestants. Kings had been taught by their teach- 
ers and spiritual guides that " to dissemble was to reign," 
and that " to become a great man it was necessary to 
become a great villain." The consequence was national 
weakness and demoralization. Mock treaties were 
made to conceal real ones, and kings, to disguise their 
intentions, acted differently from what they thought. 
A succession of weak, bigoted, tyrannical, and criminal 
rulers had oppressed the industry of the country, and 
drove thousands of subjects to seek a livelihood under 
less oppressive government. Despotic ministers, rapa- 
cious favorites, intriguing prostitutes, foolish enter- 
prises absurd laws, professed rakes in the garb of 
priests and cardinals, prodigality, corruption and 
tyranny withering the vitality of the nation, and accu- 
mulating on the heads of the people an insupportable 
load of taxation and misery, were the deplorable results 
of the operation of the pope and his political engine. 
But while such were the calamities which Catholicism 
was maturing, the eloquent writings of Voltaire, of Ros- 
seau, and other liberal authors were awakening a spirit 
of inquiry in the public mind, and preparing the way 
for political regeneration. The smouldering fires of 
freedom which burned in the breast of the nation, ren- 
dered the conflict between monarchy and republicanism 
inevitable. It finally took place; the majesty of the 
people was vindicated ; and, a national assembly con- 
vened consisting of three hundred and seventeen cler- 
gymen, three hundred and seventeen nobles, and six 
hundred and seventeen deputies of the people ; all of 
whom took an oath never to separate until they had 
given France a free constitution. From the ruins of the 



288 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 

monarchy a republic arose in majesty and power. The 
feudal estates were abolished without indemnifica- 
tion. The invidious game laws, the feudal tribunals, 
the church tithes, the ecclesiastical revenues, the hered- 
itary descent of officers, the exemption of church dig- 
nities from military taxation, the laws excluding Pro- 
testants from offices of trust or profit, and denying them 
the right of inheriting, acquiring or bequeathing prop- 
erty, and all that the toil of the papal machinery had 
accumulated on the heads of the people, were swept 
away by the spirit of liberal government. To obtain 
this freedom the nation had poured out its blood. But 
•the nation had been educated in Catholic bigotry and 
intolerance ; and now it visited on the heads of its 
tutors the lessons which they had taught. The people 
swept away the despotism of the throne, but left it 
remaining in the national councils ; and, while they 
made a wreck of oppression, they preserved its elements 
to be reconstructed in another form. It is not, then, 
surprising, that hard as their freedom was won, it was 
so easily betrayed by the genius of Napoleon Bonaparte, 
once its advocate, but always its foe ; who hated repub- 
licanism as much as he hated papacy, for they both 
were in conflict with his designs ; and who loved 
nothing but himself and supreme dominion. But the 
boon he sought his ambition defeated. While he stood 
at the height of his fortune, with the conquest of 
Europe in his grasp, the mask fell from his brow. The 
confidence of freemen forsook him ; and his glory, which 
else might have outrivalled the splendor of the greatest, 
flickered, grew dim, and soon vanished away ; leaving 
the world as much astonished at the obscurity it left as it 
had been at the effulgence it had emitted. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
GERMANY. 

Papal Intrigues in Germany under the reigns of Otho 
I — of Henry IV. — of Henry V. — of Frederic I — of 
Frederic II — of Conrad IV. — of Albert I — of Henry 
VII — of Louis -of Bavaria — of Charles IV. — of Sigis- 
mund — of Charles V. — of Ferdinand II — Papal In- 
trigues in Austria — in Prussia — and in the Nether- 
lands. 

Wittixind the Great, King of Saxony, after a vigorous 
resistance for thirty-three years against the arms of 
Charlemagne, the confederate of the pope, submitted to 
be baptized to spare the further effusion of the blood of 
his subjects. But in the events of one hundred years, 
the conquered became the emperors, and the Franks 
were supplanted on the throne by the Saxons. From 
the time that the Carlovingian dynasty was established 
until the dissolution of the empire in 1806, the secular 
power had to continually struggle against the intrigues 
and usurpations of the Papal See. 

The pope's claim of being the disposer of crowns, and 
the source of secular power, acheived something of a 
triumph in 962, when through a crafty policy the pon- 
tiff bestowed the diadem on Otho. From motives of 
policy the emperor conceded the spiritual claims of the 
pope, but prudently nullified them by placing him 
25 



290 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

Tinder his authority. While Otho acknowledged that 
he was emperor by the grace of God and the pope, he 
required the latter, who was John XII. ? to swear allegi- 
ance to him, and the Roman See to enter into a solemn 
agreement with him that henceforth no pope should he 
chosen except in the presence of a Germanic imperial 
commission. This judicious check on the intriguing 
policy of the Papal See, was too unpleasant to he toler- 
ated longer than weakness made it unavoidable. Pre- 
sumptuous as false, Pope John XII. was led to violate 
his oath of allegiance, and to take up arms to acquire 
inependence of secular authority. For this act of per- 
jury, treason, and violation of a solemn treaty — which 
in a layman would have been a capital offence, but in a 
priest was aggravated by the additional crime of hypoc- 
risy — the emperor could not do less than depose him. 

In the papal monarchy virtue and ability were sel- 
dom conspicuous, and generally when either appeared 
in its administration, it was less the offspring of Cathol- 
icism than of the Germanic authority. The emperors 
of Germany were far better men than the popes of Rome. 
"While the first labored to reform the church, the latter 
did little else than corrupt it. Virtue, the foundation 
of public order and concord, could not but be encour- 
aged in the subjects by a sagacious monarch ; and vice, 
the indulgent mother of fraud and imposition, could not 
but be cultivated by a crafty and ambitious priest. In 
the progress of the conduct of the papal and the impe- 
rial policy, so mutually antagonistical, Henry III., who 
became Emperor of Germany in 1046, had to depose 
three popes, and to fill the papal chair during his life 
with men of his own choice. He also held the papal 



IN GERMANY. 291 

monarchy under strict surveilance, and forbade the be- 
stowal of any spiritual dignity, or the appropriation of 
any church property without his sanction. The whole- 
some effects of his severity won commendations even 
from those upon whom they were most rigorously en- 
forced ; in proof of which it may be stated that the 
clergy spontaneously bestowed on him the title of " The 
Pious," which he condescended to accept. 

In 1056 Henry IV. ascended the throne of Germany. 
The Papal See, bitterly groaning under the jealous re- 
straint which had been imposed on it by the secular 
authority, eagerly w T atched, and artfully intrigued for 
an opportunity to remove them. The impolitic and ty- 
rannical conduct of Henry IV. appeared, perhaps in 
its eye, as a providential circumstance designed to aid 
the success of its long cherished design. The emperor, 
governed by the advice of Archbishop Adelbert, at- 
tempted, by building castles, and committing brutal and 
violent acts, to rule his people through the terror of his 
authority. Neglecting to guard popular interests, which 
alone can secure popular attachment, his efforts to over- 
awe his subjects produced only dissatisfaction and in- 
surrection. In an outburst of popular violence pro- 
voked by his . imprudence, considerable damage was 
done to some churches in Saxony and Thuringia. These 
disorders gave Henry the opportunity of gratifying his 
revengeful feelings in accusing the inhabitants before 
the pope of sacrilege, and of entering their territory and 
perpetrating the most barbarous cruelty. The conse- 
quences of this proceeding eventuated in such a favor- 
able crisis to the papal designs, that, had the ablest 
pope projected and engineered them they could not 



292 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

have culminated more propitiously. The injured and 
exasperated inhabitants appealed to the pope. Pope 
Gregory VII., having ascended the papal throne with- 
out the consent of the German court, eagerly embraced a 
cause which enabled him to assert his claim claim to in- 
dependent sovereignty, and supremacy over all secular 
authority. Fully aware that the tyranny of Henry 
had deprived him of the affections and support of his 
subjects, he commanded the unpopular monarch to 
appear before him, under pain of excommunication. In 
punishment for this ferocious warrant the emperor sum- 
moned a council of bishops at Worms, and obliged them 
to renounce their allegiance to Gregory. This daring 
act so irritated the pope that he began to lavish, with un- 
sparing liberality, anathemas on the head of the mon- 
arch. Henry at first treated this display of arrogated 
divinity with scornful indifference, but his vices had 
too much disembarrassed the action of the papal ma- 
chinery not to allow it to disable his power and revenge. 
His subjects disowned their allegiance to him ; his friends 
deserted him ; his soldiers disobeyed his orders ; and 
he found himself helplessly at the mercy of a revenge- 
ful and irritated priest. With a refinement of malice 
that seems to do credit to papal ingenuity, at least, the 
emperor was required to dress in penitential robes, for- 
mally to solicit for three days an interview with the 
sacerdotal despot, and then to promise unconditional 
obedience to him in all things. But the acts of tyranny 
carry with them the seeds of retribution. The tyrant 
who could impose such conditions on a fallen foe, 
could also have been guilty, in the exercise of his 
power, of inflicting injuries on his subjects which would 



IN GERMANY. 293 

be calculated to excite a disposition to revolt and retal- 
iation. This was precisely the case with Pope Gre- 
gory VII. He had oppressed the Italian provinces to 
such a degree that the inhabitants longed for an oppor- 
tunity to depose him; and now the misfortunes of 
Henry appearing to render him an available agent in 
the accomplishment of their designs, they proposed a 
coalition with him. The pope becoming acquainted 
with this secret machination, set about to counteract it. 
By the operation of his skilful machinery he was en- 
abled suddenly to create a conspiracy in the heart of 
Germany, for the deposition of the emperor ; but the 
vigilance and valor of the latter defeated the revolu- 
tionary movement. Having in vain exhausted all re- 
sources to subject the incorrigable monarch to his abso- 
lute authority, lie now sought to beguile the mortifica- 
tion of his defeat by hurling anathemas at his obsti- 
nate head. But the temper of Henry not disposing 
him to indulge the chagrined pope in insolent sports, 
summoned a council of German and Italian bishops at 
Brixen, and by proving to their satisfaction that Pope 
Gregory VII. was a heretic, a sorcerer, and had dealings 
with the devil, effected his degradation, and placed 
Clement III. in the papal chair. 

The spirit and pretensions of Catholicism are so inim- 
ical to secular authority that, to whatever extent they 
obtain a controlling influence in a government they tend 
to abridge its sovereignty, and threaten its subversion. 
This tendency, so clearly indicated by the principles of 
the papal monarchy, and so fearfully illustrated in 
its history, is incapable of being restrained by any sense 

of gratitude, or by any obligation of oaths. A knowl- 
35* 



294 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGTJES 

edge of this unhappy truth will prevent surprise that 
the munificont favors which Henry bestowed on Pope 
Clement III., in elevating him to the papal dig- 
nity, should not have caused the repeal of the anathe- 
mas orid excommunications which had been pronounced 
against him, nor arrested the papal machinery in its 
insidious and treacherous operations, in fostering the 
elements of discord which existed in the empire. No- 
thing but the surrender of the principles of sovereignty 
will ever conciliate a pope to the authority of a secular 
government. The prudence, courage, and talents of the 
king were hence constantly called into requisition to 
defeat the secret machinations of his enemies. His 
eldest son was instigated to rebel against him. After 
he had subdued him, his second son, whom he had 
crowned as his successor, obliged him to surrender into 
his hands the imperial authority. By the implacable 
revenge of the Papal See, operating through its varied 
machinery, he was deprived of power, reduced to scorn 
and neglect, and after it had murdered him by degrees, 
prohibited the interment of his anathematized corpse 
in consecrated ground. 

After Henry V., in 1106, had wrung from his father's 
hand the imperial sceptre, he sought to have this atro- 
cious act sanctified in the eyes of his subjects by being 
crowned at Rome by the pope — Paschal II. This 
sanction of unfilial conduct the pope was willing to ac- 
cord ; but as it seemed to present an opportunity for 
making a good speculation, he exacted, as the only con- 
dition on which the favor could be granted, a conces- 
sion to the Holy See of all the rights and privileges 
which had been claimed for it by Pope Gregory VII. 



IN GERMANY. 295 

This proposition startled Henry ; he saw the ambitious 
designs of the pope, and he felt the importance of check- 
ing them. Boldly denying the papal pretensions, and 
rejecting with indignant contempt the proposition of 
Paschal, he marched his army on Rome, dragged the 
pope from the altar while he was celebrating mass, and 
casting him into prison, determined that he should 
there remain until he consented to crown him without 
any condition. To be restored to liberty and luxury 
the pope acceded to all the terms dictated to him by 
the emperor, but with a secret disposition to render 
them nugatory at the first opportunity. Disturbances 
occurring in Germany, the pope was agreeably relieved 
of the embarrassing restraints of the emperor's pres- 
ence. To suppress the Germanic revolution the skill 
and valor of Henry was occupied for two years. In 
the meantime the pope, in order to nullify the conces- 
sions which he had made, organized an Italian conspi- 
racy against the emperor. Soon as Henry had quelled 
the insubordination in Germany, he therefore returned 
to Italy to punish the author of the calamities of his 
reign. But Pope Paschal evaded the designed chas- 
tisement by absconding to Apulea, where he shortly af- 
terwards died. 

Pope Galatius II., an enemy of Henry, having ob- 
tained the papal dignity, the latter deposed him, 
and caused Bourden, under the name of Gregory 
VIII. , to be substituted in his place. The deposed 
pope and his cardinals, having the control of the papal 
machinery, were enabled to oppose, with great success, 
the policy of Henry in every part of his dominion. 
Galatius assembled a council of bishops at Vienna and 



296 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

excommunicated him ; Calaxtus II. convened one at 
Rheims, and repeated the sentence ; the nobles broke 
out in frequent rebellion ; and finally such insubordi- 
nation prevailed in the empire, and such violent out- 
bursts so frequently disturbed the public peace, that 
in order to restore tranquillity Henry was compelled to 
subscribe to a concordat at Worms, in which he re- 
nounced the right of investiture, and to any interfer- 
ence in the consecration of bishops. 

Frederic I. succeeded to the imperial throne in 1152. 
The increasing opulence and power of the Italian and 
Lombardine cities owing allegience to Germanic author- 
ity, the ambitious aspirations of the Papal See for 
illimitable dominion, and the insidious operations of 
its machinery in producing public taste and opinion in 
harmony with its desires, had, at the beginning of the 
reign of Frederic I., produced revolts and usurpations 
in Lombardy and Italy, which obliged the emperor to 
visit and chastise the insurrectionary districts. Pope 
Alexander III., the chief source of the public discord, 
fled on the approach of Frederic to France, and 
excommunicated him. A league was then formed be- 
tween the pope, Venice, and the Greek empire against 
Frederic ; and for twenty years the calamities of war 
were protracted. The cruelty which the emperor had 
exercised towards the rebellious cities created a des- 
perate opposition to his authority, and exercised an 
important influence in stimulating the valor and energy 
of the people, by which their freedom was finally 
achieved in the treaty of Venice in 1177. 

The spiritual and temporal crown of the world which 
the Roman See attempted to manufacture out of the 



IN GERMANY. 297 

fishhooks of St. Peter, however visionary it might orig- 
inally have appeared, assumed in the progress of the 
papal political intrigues, the appearance of a stubborn, 
formidable and frightful reality. With the profound 
policy which it elaborated, and the systematic course of 
measures which it adopted, accommodated to all exi- 
gencies and pursued through all periods, and at all 
places; with its machinery ramifying the political, so- 
cial, and literary institutions of Christendom ; with its 
confessors transmitting to Rome every important fact ; 
with its inquisition extorting from victims an admis- 
sion of every false charge of which ecclesiastical interests 
required the establishment ; with its preachers and spir- 
itual guides manufacturing, private and public opinion 
suitable to its demands by perverted facts and false state- 
ments ; and with its army of monks, knights, sycophant 
princes, servile kings, and deluded devotees ; it had at 
the period of Pope Innocent III. subjugated Christen- 
dom under its despotic authority. During the progress 
of its aggressive course the voice of reason and patri- 
otism had often lifted up remonstrances against its 
advancement ; but the eloquent tones died away un- 
heeded amid the clamorous chaunts of superstitious 
rites. But now, after supineness had allowed it to amass 
supreme and despotic power, and fortify itself by every 
means of defence, the antagonism of the people began 
to be energetically manifested. It is the fate of des- 
potism of every form, when it has developed the full 
strength of its all-blasting power, to awaken another 
power destined to trample it in the dust. That power 
is the strength which slumbers in the popular arm. 
When the papal despotism was no more a pretension, 



298 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

but a fact, when it stood distinctly before the world 
clotted with the blood of generations, surrounded by 
broken sceptres and crushed thrones, with its feet on the 
neck of kings and people, and its usurping hand grasping 
at the crowns of earth, heaven and hell, a murmur of 
horror broke from the lips of the world. Then learn- 
ing began to scoff at its claims, research to expose its 
frauds, wit to ridicule its pretensions ; and then religious 
liberty, through the Albigenses and Waldenses uttered 
that memorable peal, which is destined to reverberate 
as an undying tone through all future ages. Then arose 
the free cities from their long degradation, and began 
to perfect their internal organizations by the establish- 
ment of corporations ; then appeared the first universi- 
ties, arousing the dormant spirit of free inquiry and 
investigation ; then the abrogation of the system of 
violence began to restore public security ; and then the 
separate members of the empire began to be assembled 
and deliberate on public affairs, originating the principle 
of the provincial diets. 

Frederic II., son of the emperor Henry VI., was 
born at this illustrious period of German history. 
Philip, Duke of Suabia, was nominated regent during 
Frederic's minority, but the pope, wishing a more pli- 
ant instrument, substituted Berthold. Finding this 
scheme impracticable he recommended Otho, and Philip 
being murdered, the papal policy succeeded. But the 
pope soon found that his intrigue had vested with power 
a mortal foe to the Papal See. For Otho clearly mani- 
fested a design of not only wresting Sicily from Fred- 
eric, which the latter inherited from his mother, princess 
of Constance, but of establishing the authority of Ger- 



IN GERMANY 299 

many over certain possessions of Italy which it claimed 
as an inheritance. To counteract the mistake of his policy 
the pope took Frederic under his protectson, and called 
into requisition all the power of his machinery. At the 
age of twenty-one years he crowned his protege Empe- 
ror of Germany ; but in order to bind him to his inter- 
ests he exacted a coronation oath that he would under- 
take a crusade in behalf of the church. Frederic, enjoy- 
ing the favor and influence of the pope, and the advan- 
tageous co-operation of his machinery, soon defeated 
Otho, and became sole sovereign of the empire. 

With a grasp of intellect, and versatility of talent 
that rarely have sprung from a royal cradle, Frederic 
II. elaborated projects which, although they transcended 
the liberality and enlightenment of his age, yet laid 
the foundation for their development in a future period. 
The possession of the German and Sicilian crowns led 
him to hope that he would be able to repress the power- 
ful hierarchy of Home, and reduce the pope to the dig- 
nity of a bishop. Impressed with the importance of 
this object, and the difficulty of its accomplishment, he 
slowly and cautiously removed obstacle after obstacle, 
and selected the elements for his great enterprise. As 
a preliminary measute he caused his son to be crowned 
King of Rome. This act alarmed the jealousy of Pope 
Honorious III., who desired to be acquainted with the 
motive of it. The emperor replied that his coronation 
oath required him to undertake a crusade, and the 
fulfilment of it rendered it necessary to invest his 
son with regal authority. However ungratifying this 
reasoning was to the pope, he could not refute it, and 
as the emperor promised to deal severely with the her- 



300 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

etics, and to exclude them from offices of trust or profit, 
he became greatly pacified. In maturing his measures 
for the restoration of the Italian empire, the emperor 
procrastinated for twelve years the fulfilment of his un- 
dertaking, a crusade ; and though the pope frequently 
reminded him of the solemnity of his obligation, yet his 
apologies were so plausible that they seemed fully to 
justify the delay. The inexplicable mystery of Fred- 
eric's conduct, however, excited the apprehensions of 
Pope Gregory IX. — and to get rid of his presence 
in Europe he peremptorily demanded that he should 
undertake the promised crusade. With a show of obe- 
dience to the pope's injunction, he commenced prepar- 
ing for the enterprise, but upon such an extensive scale, 
and so interruptedly and slowly that it damped the 
fire, consumed the provisions, and thinned the ranks of 
the pilgrims. At length he set sail with his fleet, but 
becoming indisposed after three days' voyage returned 
home. The return of his formidable army alarmed 
the fears of the pope, who appears to have equally 
dreaded the success of his arms abroad and of his pres- 
ence at home. Adopting the customary policy of the 
popes in their emergency, he endeavored to embarrass 
the designs of Frederic by pronouncing sentence of 
excommunication on him, and suspending all religious 
services in his dominions. The justice of this sentence 
being attempted to be supported by the failure of the 
emperor to fulfil his coronation oath, Frederic endea- 
vored to nullify it, if not in the eyes of the pope, yet 
in those of the people, by undertaking a vigorous cru- 
sade. But the infallible pope who had excommunicated 
him for not becoming a crusader, now excommunicated 



IN GEUMANY. 301 

him for becoming one. During the emperor's absence 
the pope preached a crusade against him in his own do- 
minions, organized a conspiracy against him, and devas- 
tated his empire with his own troops. That he might 
weaken the power and popularity of the emperor 
abroad, he ordered the bishops and knights of the army 
of the cross in Palestine to dispute his command and 
oppose his designs. But the remarkable genius of 
Frederic, undaunted by difficulties, and unimpressible 
by discouragement and reverses, made him victorious, 
as well over the arms of the Turks as over the intrigues 
of the pope. He entered Jerusalem in triumph ; and, 
not finding a bishop who would incur the papal ana- 
themas by crowning him, he performed the ceremony 
himself. The success of Frederic filled Christendom 
with joy, but the pope with indignation. He declared 
every church into which he entered profaned ; inter- 
dicted the celebration of divine worship in Jerusalem ; 
and such was his influence with the chivalrous knight- 
hood, that among its members were found persons base 
enough to secretly inform the Sultan how he might dis- 
pose of his victor, by assassination, in his customary 
visits to the river Jordan. But the magnanimity of the 
Sultan rejected the proposition with contempt, and 
communicated the matter to the emperor to place him 
on his guard. 

While Frederic exacted from the pope what justice 
and self respect demanded, he was so far from being 
disposed to treat him with unnecessary rigor that, when 
his vices and tyranny had excited his subjects into a re- 
bellion, he interposed in his behalf and restored tranquil- 
lity. An act so generous in the emperor should have 
26 



302 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

awakened in the pope an equal degree of magnanimity, 
but so far was he incapable of any sense of gratitude, 
that he instigated the emperor's son to conspire against 
him, and assured him of the assistance of the Lom- 
bards. This conspiracy was detected, and defeated 
in its bud ; and, the emperor regarding his son more as 
the victim of sacerdotal craft than as a real foe to his 
authority, pardoned his disloyalty. The sense of grati- 
tude naturally arising from this act of clemency, 
added to the weight of filial affection, should have 
been sufficient to form a disposition which would 
have subjected the son to the most affectionate subor- 
dination to the father. But the dispensations and 
absolutions with which the church pretends to nullify 
social and civil obligations, unhappily interfered with 
the natural instincts of the son's mind, and led him to 
add to the guilt of his treason, the ignominy of attempt- 
ing to assassinate his father. This atrocious act can- 
celling every obligation of nature, would have justified 
the emperor in proceeding to extremes ; but his native 
magnanimity prevailed, and he sentenced his son to per- 
petual banishment. 

The success of the policy of Frederic comprehended 
a union of the hostile elements of his southern territory, 
the subjugation of the Germanic aristocracy, and of the 
Italian cities in alliance with the pope. Preparatory to 
the execution of this policy he made some conquests in 
Lombardy These successes excited the revenge of the 
pope, who accordingly visited on his head another 
excommunication. But the Vatican thunder was 
allowed to roll on, as amid its music the emperor 
marched on from victory to victory. At length, in the 



IN GERMANY. 303 

development of the policy of Frederic, the time arrived 
for striking a decisive blow at the heart of the public 
disorder. By a sudden movement he entered the papal 
dominions. The pope trembled on his throne. He saw 
his monarchy at the mercy of an emperor, whom he had 
anathematized, whose son he had taught to rebel, whose 
subjects he had corrupted, and whose downfall he had 
labored to effect. The consummation of the policy of 
Frederic was in his grasp ; but the magnificent prospect 
which skill and valor had obtained, superstition blasted. 
Having some reverence for the office, though none for 
the character of the pope, and conscious of the powerful 
influence it wielded over the superstitious, he ventured 
to listen to the papal monarch, who professed a willing- 
ness to concede all his demands, but proposed that they 
should first be sanctioned by a council of the bishops of 
the church. The emperor soon perceived, but too late, 
that this specious proposition was but a popish device. 
The preliminaries for holding the proposed council 
established the fact, that the pope intended to have it 
chiefly composed of the most inveterate enemies of the 
emperor ; in fact none but such were invited to partici- 
pate in its proceedings. Frederic felt justified, there- 
fore, in forbidding the convention to assemble. As his 
prohibition was disregarded, he intercepted a Genoese 
fleet of one hundred bishops, and brought them captive 
to Naples. This manoeuvre broke up the council, and 
perhaps broke the pope's heart, as he shortly afterwards 
died. 

Cardinal Fiesco, a warm friend of the emperor, be- 
came Pope Innocent IV. ; but the dignity of pope 
making him regard the emperor as hostile to his mon- 



304 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

archial pretensions, converted his former friendship into 
bitter annimosity. Returning to Lyons, he confirmed 
all the aathemas that had been pronounced against 
Frederic, and summoned him to appear at the bar of a 
grand council to be convened at that place. In the 
proceedings of this council the most ridiculous and 
groundless charges were preferred against Frederic, and 
though completely refuted by his deputies, yet as the 
proceedure was merely the semblance of a judicial trial, 
to sanction preconcerted malice and revenge by forms 
of lagality, the council did not hesitate to declare 
him guilty, any proof of innocence to the contrary, 
It seems to have concentrated its ingenuity in devising 
new and unheardof methods to give terrific importance 
to the ventilation of its hate. An anathema was pro- 
nounced on the body and soul of the emperor, and on 
all his interests, friends and allies. While pronouncing 
these religious curses, the priests, like fiends administer- 
ing at some infernal ceremonies, held in their hands 
lighted torches, and upon its conclusion suddenly ex- 
tinguished them ; and by the theatrical trick of uttering 
discordant shrieks and howls, seemed in the daikness of 
the cathedral to have converted the holy place into the 
lower regions, peopled with the arch-fiend and his 
agents. Though these artistical elaborations were not 
without some effect, yet the vigor of the emperor's 
genius, the magnanimity which he constantly displayed, 
his vast popularity, and the triumph of his arms — which 
continued to his death — demonstrated to the intelligent 
that there was no real curse in the papal anathemas. 

Conrad IV., son of Frederic II., became emperor of 
Germany in 1250. Innocent IV., whose policy it was 



IN GERMANY. 305 

to profess any friendship, and violate any obligation 
that contributed to his interests, determined to com- 
plete on the son the vengeance he had commenced on 
the father. Presumptuous as vindictive he declared 
that inasmuch as Frederic II. had been excommun- 
icated, his son could not inherit the throne. On the 
ground of this ridiculous pretext, he pronounced him 
dispossessed of all his inheritance ; laid on him an in- 
terdict ; and persecuted him by all the means which his 
power and influence afforded. But notwithstanding 
a revengeful pope, whose malice through his machinery 
operated everywhere, yet, he had more than his equal 
to contend with. The courage and heroism of Conrad 
defeated the papal army, kept the pope's allies in check, 
and was about to enter Lombardy with the fairest pros- 
pects of success when his illegitimate brother, by admin- 
istering poison to him, relieved the pope of a formidable 
adversary. 

Conradin, son of Conrad IV., the last of the noble 
house of Hohenstaufen, was the heir to the throne. 
The pope refused to acknowledge his right to succes- 
sion, because his father had been excommunicated. He 
declared also that Conradin had forfeited his right of 
inheritance to the crown of Naples and Sicily, and un- 
dertook to bestow it on Charles of Anjou. But Conradin 
entered Italy and defeated the usurper ; but while he 
was pursuing the flying enemy with too much reckless- 
ness, he was captured by the vanquished. The world 
expected that his youth and valor could not but win 
compassion even from the iron-hearted pope, but the in- 
tense hatred of the papal monarch to the noble house 

of which this intrepid lad was the last scion, would not 
26* 



306 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

permit him to allow an opportunity to escape of extin- 
guishing it forever. Conradin was therefore, though 
but sixteen years old, publicly executed as a criminal ; 
but his heroism, and the circumstances under which he 
met death, crowned his memory with immortal honor, 
while it cast a deeper tinge of ignominy on the already 
blackened character of the pope. 

The usurpation of territory, and interference in 
political affairs, which are so strongly characteristic 
of the papal policy, originate from the consti- 
tutional principles of the Roman See. In conformity 
with them Pope Boniface VIII. proclaimed him- 
self King of Eome ; and declared that the Roman 
See was the source whence the Germanic electors 
derived their rights. Albert I. being chosen em- 
peror by the electors in 1298, was summoned by the 
pope to appear before him and apologize for having ac- 
cepted the crown without consulting his pleasure, and 
to expiate the guilt of his offence by the performance 
of such penance as should be prescribed. To en- 
force compliance with this injunction the pope formed 
an allegiance with the archbishop of Mentz, a powerful 
military bishop, and a former friend of Albert. To re- 
sist the belligerent pope Albert effected an alliance with 
Philip la Belle, of France. . Making a sudden diversion 
into the electorate of Mentz, Albert obliged the bishop 
to form a league with him for five years. The pope 
then suggested peaceful negotiation rather than disas- 
trous war. It was finally agreed between the two con- 
tracting parties that the pope should give to Albert the 
possessions of his ally, and that Albert should acknowl- 
edge that the western empire was a grant as a fief from 



IN GERMANY, 307 

the pope, that the electors derived their right from the 
Roman See, and that he would defend the papal inter- 
ests with his arms. The pope then proceeded, by vir- 
tue of an excommunication, to invalidate the title of 
Louis la Belle, of France, to his kingdom, and officially 
to transfer it to Albert L 

During the reign of Henry YIL, who beeame empe- 
ror of Germany in 1308, the tyranny and ambition of 
the pope were held in decent check, and the Papal See 
was unusually quiet and respectable. The emperor, 
whom the pope hated, but whom he dared not anathe- 
matize, was finally removed by poison administered in 
the sacramental wine, by Moltipulcian, a Dominican 
monk. Soon as this event occurred the pope's ven- 
geance, which had been accumulating in fury for years, 
but which was too much overawed to utter a murmur, 
now burst forth with the most impetuous and indecent 
violence in anathemas on the soul, the corpse, the coffin, 
and the tomb of the dead emperor ; but it is not sup- 
posed that they done any damage, except to the charac- 
ter and good sense of the Roman See, 

Louis IV., of Bavaria, became emperor of Germany 
in 1330, To arrest the encroachments of the Papal See 
on the rights of the sovereignty of the empire, the diet 
of Rense framed a constitution, in 1338, which provided 
that the choice of the electors of the union should be 
final in its decision, and independent of the Pope of 
Rome. These patriotic proceedings seemed to the pope 
to be interfering with his rights ; and John XXI. ac- 
cordingly prohibited the performance of divine worship 
in the empire, until the obnoxious constitution should 
be annulled. But Louis soon repaired this calamity by 



308 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

the creation of Pope Nicholas V., who, having equal 
authority with Pope John XXI., nullified ail his acts. 
Pope Clement VIL, who succeeded to the papal throne 
in 1342, excommunicated Louis, and by his intrigues 
caused five electors to declare in favor of Charles of 
Luxemburg. This violation of the celebrated constitu- 
tion of 1338 induced three electors to assemble at 
Lahstein, and declare the choice of Charles null and 
void ; and as Louis had died, they elected Edward of 
England, but he declining, they elected Frederic the 
Severe ; he also declining, the crown was finally settled 
on Gunter of Schwarzburg. But Gunter being removed 
by poison, the papal policy triumphed in the coronation 
of Charles of Luxemburg. 

Charles IV., in 1346, wishing to be crowned by the 
pope at Rome, visited Italy to negotiate for that favor. 
Pope Innocent VI., always inclined to make the vanity 
and ambition of his subjects administer to his aggran- 
dizement, signified a disposition to accommodate the em- 
peror, but on such disgraceful conditions that, by 
accepting them he subjected himself to the scorn 
and derision of the world. This self-degradation was 
much aggravated by the fact that many distinguished 
Romans, oppressed by the papal administration, united 
in requesting Charles to claim the city of Rome as a por- 
tion of his empire. Instead of improving this opportunity 
to extend the limits of his government, he renounced 
all rights, not only to the city of Rome, but to the States 
of the Church, to Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Cor- 
sica. He also consented to impose a tax on the empire 
for the benefit of the Papal See, equal to one-tenth of 
the ecclesiastical revenues ; and further added to his 



IN GERMANY. 309 

disgrace by taking an oath, never to enter Italy without 
the pope's sanction. For this base sycophancy he was 
assailed by princes and people with a storm of indigna- 
tion. To allay the fury of this tempest he announced 
an intention of convening a council for the reformation 
of the clergy, and for making liberal concessions to the 
popular demands. But this attempt to calm the people 
aroused the indignation of the Papal See. The pope 
exhorted the electors to depose him instantly. Assailed 
on all sides, dangers thickening around him from all 
quarters, but dreading less the indignation of the em- 
pire than the anathema of the Roman See, he yielded 
to the dictation of the pope, and confirmed the clergy 
in a]l their jDrivileges, sanctioned all their abuses, pro- 
tected them in all their possessions, and made them en- 
tirely independent of the secular power. 

The papal power, at the period of Frederic II., 
seemed to tremble on the verge of inevitable de- 
struction ; but by a profound and unscrupulous policy, 
and a system of crafty intrigues, aided by a political 
machinery whose various parts ramified every portion 
of the empire, and acted in concert through all ages and 
dynasties, it had steadily carried its advancements 
through the blood of millions and the ruins of thrones, 
until, at the time of Charles, it had regained its supremacy 
in the empire ; and dictated treaties to the emperors, 
measures to the diets, and laws to the people. A power 
that could at its option excite or quell a popular out- 
burst, create or destroy a dynasty, might be an object 
of terror to people and princes, but never an object of 
reverence. The dread it cast on the mind was always 
unpleasant, and in proportion as its power became op- 



*» 



310 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

pressive and disadvantageous, opposition and resistance 
were inevitably excited. The love of independence, 
the native individualism of the Germanic character, 
was always a mortal foe to papal despotism. It might 
be cowered into silence, but it still grew in vigor, be- 
came more impatient as the pope became more despotic, 
and bolder as it became more conscious of its numeri- 
cal strength. This spirit, in 1411, when Sigismund be- 
came Emperor of Germany, displayed an energy pro- 
phetic of stirring events and important consequences. 
The spirit of Germanic individualism led distinguished 
men of the nation to deny, with emphatic boldness, the 
pretensions of the pope ; to denounce the profligacy of 
the clergy ; and to demand in the body and head of 
the church a thorough reformation. Prominent among 
the apostles of religious freedom, which rose into con- 
sequence at that time, was John Huss, and his disciples. 
The success of these reformers excited and alarmed the 
pope. Hating any semblance of a right to participate 
in his authority, or to assume any approach to an 
equality with him, he was strongly averse to the assembl- 
ing of a deliberative council ; but conscious that his 
divine attributes and prerogatives were not adequate 
to the existing emergency, he consented that the Coun- 
cil of Constance should be called, on condition that it 
should adopt the most energetic means for the extirpa- 
tion of the heretics. With the secret design of betry- 
ing the amiable reformer, John Huss, he was invited to 
respond in person to a summons of the council. To 
quiet his apprehensions of danger, the emperor fur- 
nished him with a safe conduct, and the pope pledged 
his honor to protect him from harm. Thus guarded by 



IN GERMANY. 311 

the honor of the state and the church, he was, notwith- 
standing, perfidiously betrayed, and condemned to be 
burnt alive. The perfidy of the infallible pope is justi- 
fied by the saints and authorities of the Catholic church, 
on the ground that no pledge, assurance, or oath, can 
rightfully protect a heretic from punishment. Sigis- 
mund attended the horrid ceremonies ; and being re- 
minded by a by-stander that the course of the wind 
might bear an offensive effluvia to the position he occu- 
pied, answered : " The odor of a burning heretic can 
never be offensive to Sigismund." 

The death of John Huss was terribly revenged. The 
stake became the watchword of union. The hitherto mild 
and submissive reformers became desperate revengers. 
Churches and convents were burnt; monks and priests 
slaughtered without mercy. The insurgents met and 
defeated the imperial forces. The strongest armies of 
the cross withered before their ferocity. For fifteen 
years they devastated the Papal dominions, and shook 
the government with the violence of their retribution. 
Seeing it impossible to restrain their rage, Sigismund 
obliged the Council of Basle to negotiate with them for 
the adjustment of their difficulties. This politic mea- 
sure so incensed Pope Eugenius IV., whose uncompro- 
mising vengeance longed for the extermination of every 
opponent to papal despotism, that he ordered his legates 
to dissolve the obnoxious assembly. But the laity had 
advanced in liberality and knowledge far beyond the 
possible attainment of a papal despot, and in defiance 
of his maledictions and intrigues, continued their useful 
session, and terminated, by peaceful concessions, the 
war with the Hussites. 



312 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

The grand struggle between religious freedom and 
Catholic despotism was visibly approaching when Char- 
les V., King of Spain, in 1519 became Emperor of 
Germany. His design was to conquer the world, and 
his policy was to unite all parties in augmenting the 
national strength. To secure the favor of the pope, and 
the co-operation of his extensive and effective machin- 
ery, he declared himself the defender of the Catholic 
faith. To conciliate the Protestants he convened a 
diet at Worms, at which, under a plausible show of 
toleration he allowed Luther, in his presence, to defend 
the principles of the reformation. But his ambigu- 
ous policy becoming offensive to the Koman See, he 
issued an edict against the Protestants. A Catholic 
from interest, he was more disposed to make the pope 
auxiliary to the success of his designs than to be gov- 
erned by him. ITence, when Francis I. preferred claims 
to certain portions of the Germanic empire, he leagued 
with the pope and accomplished the defeat of the king ; 
but he was equally disposed to defend his interests 
against the pope. The papal monarch, always appre- 
hensive of the political power of friend or foe, seeing 
that his confederacy with Charles had vastly augmented 
the latter's preponderating power, and placed the 
papal interests at his disposal, formed against him a 
counter league with the Italian States. This effort to 
retrieve the errors of his policy only aggravated his 
misfortune. The forces of the Holy League were de- 
feated by the arms of Charles, Rome taken by storm, 
the city plundered, the pope imprisoned, and four hun- 
dred thousand crowns of gold demanded for his ran- 
som. When Charles heard of the success of his arms, 



IN GERMANY. 313 

in evident mockery he dressed himself in mourning for 
the pope, ordered masses to be said in all the churches 
for his deliverance from prison, and in alleviation of his 
misfortune reduced the ransom to 100, 000 crowns. 
The power of Charles overawing the papal throne, 
it prudently refrained from venting in insulting anathe- 
mas the ebullitions of its wrath. Pope Clement VII., 
after the peace of Cambray in 1592, crowned Charles 
as King of Lombardy and Borne. 

On this occasion the emperor dutifully kissed 
the feet of the papal monarch. The cause of this 
affection and harmony was shortly afterwards man- 
ifested in an intolerant edict against the Protest- 
ants. This significant menace led the Protestant 
princes to form the Smalkalden League for the pro- 
tection of Protestantism. Two years afterwards a holy 
league was formed by the Catholic princes for the pro- 
tection of Catholicism. After some abortive attempts 
at negotiation, the Protestant league raised the stand- 
ard of war. The emperor by strategetic movements, 
and by creating jealousy and divisions among the Pro- 
testant confederates, obtained important advantages 
over their arms, and finally succeeded in dissolving the 
league. But Maurice of Saxony had secretly formed 
another league, which was joined by Henry II., King of 
France. While Charles was at Innspruck, attending the 
Council of Trent, Maurice suddenly appeared at the 
head of an army, and the emperor barely escaped 
amid the darkness of a stormy night from being cap- 
tured. The council was consequently dissolved, and 
the Protestants dictated the terms of peace at Passau ; 
which the emperor ratified at Augsburg. By the terms 
27 



314 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

of this treaty it was agreed that no one should he 
attacked on account of his religious helief ; that no one 
should he molested in the enjoyment of his property or 
mode .of worship ; that religious disputes should he ad- 
justed by pacific means ; that persons for religious rea- 
sons should he allowed to change their residences ; that 
bishops on becoming Protestants should forfeit their 
ofBce and salary ; and that every Protestant should en- 
joy his faith until a religious compromise should be 
established. 

Charles, broken down in health and constitution, 
enfeebled in mind, and conceiving that he was haunted 
by some invisible power which blasted all his prospects, 
abdicated the throne and retired to a monastery, where 
he passed the remainder of his life in making wooden 
clocks, and in performing his funeral ceremonies. 

Ferdinand II., King of Spain, succeeded to the crown 
of Germany in 1619. He was by nature of a morose 
and revengeful disposition, and the bigotry and preju- 
dice which had been instilled into his mind by Catholic 
preceptors made him an accomplished instrument in 
the hands of the church,, in executing its exterminating 
vengeance on the heretics. During the course of his 
tutelage he made a pilgrimage to Borne, where an oath 
was administered to him by the pope r that if he should 
ever become emperor he would exterminate heresy in 
his dominions. When he ascended the throne Germany 
was divided into two factions. The one was known as 
the "Catholic League/' and the other as the " Evan- 
gelical Union."' The Catholic League was headed by 
Maximilian, elector of Bavaria, and comprised the 
bishops and princes attached to the house of Austria. 



IN GERMANY. 315 

The Evangelical Union was headed by the Duke of 
"Wittenberg, the elector of Saxony and Brandenburg, 
and composed of Lutheran and Calvinistic princes and 
knights. A number of the princes of Bavaria assem- 
bled at Prague, and declaring that they would not sub- 
mit to Maximilian, chose for their king Frederic, 
elector of the Palatina, a member of the Evangelical 
Union. This revolt benefited the Evangelical Union 
by a powerful accession. A desperate and bloody 
struggle was imminent between these two parties. 
Notwithstanding the Protestant influence in Bavaria, 
Ferdinand succeeded in having himself elected king. 
After this event he tore up in a violent rage the 
charter which Rudolph II. had granted the Bohemians, 
because it allowed them to build churches and school- 
houses. He then showed his remembrance of his pop- 
ish oath by persecuting the Protestants, banishing their 
preachers, and depopulating the kingdom by an intoler- 
ance which caused emigrations of whole sections from 
his dominions. The victory of his troops near Prague 
enabling him to dictate a treaty which crushed the 
Protestant cause, and dissolved the Evangelical Union, 
he proceeded to restore the ecclesiastical institutions 
which had been abolished by the Protestants, to ex- 
clude Calvinists from the benefits of the religious peace 
of Augsburg, and to require Protestants living under 
Catholic princes to believe in Catholicism. Besides 
these decrees, enforced by the military power, the con- 
quest of the Palatinate of Frederic, the bestowal of 
that dignity on Maximilian, the emperor's favorite, 
giving the Catholics the ascendency in the electoral 
college, the army of Tilly in Lower Saxony, where no 



316 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

existing enemy made it excusable, depriving the Pro- 
testants of their churches, committing wanton violence 
on the Lutherans, and compelling thousands to abandon 
their homes, property and country, were such gross 
violations of treaties, and such strong incentives to 
resistance, that the Protestant princes were impelled to 
unite in a league with the King of Denmark and 
the Duke of Holstein, determining to exhaust every 
resource in the defence of religious liberty. After 
some successes the confederated forces were defeated, 
and the Protestants lost all that they had acquired 
since the peace of Augsburg. At this dark hour in the 
fortunes of the league, Gustavus Adolphus, with an 
army of thirty thousand veterans, espoused its cause. 
His heroism, strategetic skill, and indomitable valor 
soon annihilated Tilly's army, reduced the imperial 
allies to extreme distress, conquered Lower Saxony and 
Bavaria,* and delivered the Protestants from their per- 
ilous situation. Tilly having died, Wallenstein assumed 
command. Having raised an immense and formidable 
army, the new general was enabled to attack Adolphus 
with such overwhelming force that he compelled him to 
retire from Bavaria. In 1642, at Lutzen, the two pow- 
erful armies came to a general and decisive engagement ; 
the genius of Adolphus crowned his arms with victory, 
but his intrepidity cost him his life. Through a wise 
policy the Swedes still continued a triumphant career, 
victoriously marching through the empire with incred- 
ible rapidity, and finally, after the battle of Prague, 
dictating the peace of Westphalia. 

By the terms of the peace of Westphalia Calvinists 
acquired the same rights with Lutherans ; princes were 



IN GERMANY. 317 

bound not to persecute subjects on account of religious 
differences ; all acquisitions of Protestants since the 
peace of Augsburg were confirmed ; entire equality of 
sect, liberty of conscience, and the exercise of all modes 
of religion were guaranteed, and the independence of 
Switzerland and of the Netherlands acknowledged. 

Pope Innocent X. strenuously protested against this 
peace, complaining in bitter terms of the deep injury 
it inflicted on the church. Though the consequences of 
the treaty have been of the most benignant nature to 
Europe, still the Papal See has, through all periods 
maintained, with unabated animosity, its original oppo- 
sition to the invaluable treaty. 

The papal intrigues, so prolific of disastrous wars, 
were no less pernicious to Austria than they had been 
to other powers. Upon the death of Duke Frederic, 
its ruler, Frederic II., of Germany, declared the duchy 
a vacant fief of his empire, and appointed over it a 
governor. Pope Innocent V. persuaded Margaret, the 
sister of the deceased duke, and Gertrude, his neice, to 
claim the duchy as their inheritance. The Margrave 
Hermann, by the aid of the pope and his machinery, 
was enabled to command a strong party in support of 
the project. After a war of thirty-six years the dis- 
pute was settled by the interference of the emperor 
Eodolph, who gave it to his two sons, Albert and Eo- 
dolph. 

On the death of Maria Theresa, Joseph, her son, 
succeeded to the throne of Austria. Maria Theresa 
was a very devout and superstitious princess, a circum- 
stance which enabled the sacerdotal fraternity to gain 
and betray her confidence. But in making her an ob- 



318 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

ject of their craft they made her son their enemy. Their 
duplicity having excited in the mind of Joseph a strong 
aversion to the intermeddling and intriguing profession, 
he no sooner ascended the throne than he manifest- 
ed a disposition to adopt a policy more in accordance 
with the enlightenment of the age than was agreeable 
to the pope and the clergy. The world with pleasure, 
but the church with consternation,, beheld him enlarg- 
ing the liberty of the press, tolerating the Protestants, 
treating the Jews with moderation, annulling ecclesi- 
astical sinecures, and abolishing such monasteries and 
nunneries as were not useful as schools or hospitals. 
Uneasy at these useful reforms, yet not daring to mut- 
ter his Vatican thunder, and finding his machinery un- 
able to stop their progress, Pope Pius IV. sought a per- 
sonal interview with the liberal minded emperor, to 
dissuade him from the further prosecution of his bene- 
ficent intentions. But notwithstanding the earnest re- 
monstrances of the vicar of Christ, the emperor still 
continued to reduce the number of the monasteries, and 
to effect reforms in the churches, and in the various de- 
partments of the government. This wise and saga- 
cious policy, which relieved the people of the oppres- 
sion of spiritual despotism, and renewed the vigor 
of national energy, was not appreciated by the masses 
-through the ignorance and superstition of the age. 
The emperor not only had to contend with opposition 
from those for whose moral advancement he was labor- 
ing, but also with the disguised hostility of the pope, 
and the subtle operation of his treacherous machinery. 
But still, amid wars, seditions and rebellions, he pur- 
sued his magnanimous policy ; and if he did not effect 



IN GERMANY. 319 

all the reforms in the church, and in his government, 
that he had contemplated, it was more through the in- 
trigues of the pope than through any want of disposi- 
tion, skill and energy on his part. 

The various orders of knights, whose avocation it 
was to enforce conformity to the demands of Catholi- 
cism by the vengeance of the sword, was an important 
part of the papal machinery. All who yielded not to 
this argument were threatened with extermination ; all 
who did, became the slaves of spiritual despotism. 
Under pretext of protecting Poland from the ravages of 
Prussian heathen, the Teutonic Knights, in 1226, won 
from Conrad of Masovia a small strip of land on the 
Vistula. For fifty-three years they carried on a war 
against the Persian tribes, and finally obliged them 
to embrace Catholicism. This war, suggested by papal 
craft, continued by incredible barbarity, culminated in 
the grossest perfidy. In their protection of Poland 
they inflicted deeper injuries on her than the savages of 
Prussia had ever contemplated, or in fact had the abil- 
ity to inflict. They subjugated the Baltic seaboard, 
from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, and wrung from 
her her maritime commerce, and her northern line of 
defence. Poland and Prussia having both been plun- 
dered and oppressed by the knights, united in a bond 
of union against their common enemy, and a ferocious 
war was inaugurated, during which the knights lost a 
great portion of their territory, and finally their power 
was broken. In the various vicissitudes of the suc- 
ceeding fifty years the knights became abolished in 
Prussia, and their possessions converted into a heredi- 
tary duchy, under the male line of Prince Albert, 



320 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

which, under Francis III. became the kingdom of 
Prussia. 

The papal intrigues with regard to the Netherlands, 
were fruitful of sanguinary and deplorable conse- 
quences. Under the reign of Charles V. one hundred 
thousand Protestants fell a sacrifice to the papal intol- 
erance. Philip, his son and successor, narrow in his 
views, irritable in his temper, and implacable in his 
hate, transcended even Charles in the inhumanity of 
his measures towards his Protestant subjects. Cardinal 
Granvella having introduced into the Netherlands the 
inquisition, for the extirpation of religious freedom, the 
Prince of Orange, in conjunction with other distin- 
guished personages, remonstrated against the measure. 
This remonstrance was regarded by the government as 
an act of treason. The haughtiness of the cardinal, and 
the severe measures he introduced to intimidate the 
people, produced great disorder and alarm. The nobles 
conspired to defend their rights ; the Protestants boldly 
celebrated their religious ceremonies, and the people 
fled in crowds to England and Saxony. In spite of in- 
tolerant edicts and excruciating torture, a bold spirit 
of resistance was excited in the provinces. Philip re- 
called Cardinal Granvella, but appointed in his place 
Alva, a more cruel and implacable tyrant. Proud, 
fierce and imperious, this man knew of nothing but to 
command in a despotic tone, and expect his subjects to 
tremble and obey. Sixty years of warfare always suc- 
cessful, had familiarized him to deeds of blood, without 
humbling him by the salutary lessons of misfortune. 
Death, the usual penalty of disobedience to his com- 
mands, gave his mandate a terrific importance. As 



. IN GERMANY. oZL 

soon as he had assumed the direction of the Netherland 
provinces, he established a council of blood by means of 
which he condemned all whom he suspected of heresy, or 
whose fortunes excited a prospect of increasing his own. 
The noblest of the nation fell under the axe of his exe- 
cutioner ; and as avarice had always been a prominent 
trait of his character, he now illustrated the obduracy 
with which it is capable of debasing humanity, by con- 
fiscating the property, not only of the present but of 
the absent ; not only of the living but of the dead. 
Having cited the Prince of Orange to appear before his 
council, and that prince having refused on the ground 
of his exemption by privilege, law and usage, he de- 
clared him dispossessed of all property, and seizing on his 
son, sent him to Spain as a hostage. The prince, here- 
tofore a liberal-minded Catholic, now declared himself 
a Protestant, and drew his sword in favor of religious 
freedom. By a perseverance which no difficulties could 
prostrate, a sagacity which no subterfuge could deceive, 
a heroism which no danger could appall, and a magnan- 
imity which commanded the admiration of the world, 
he struggled through discouragement, vexation and de- 
feat until he had laid a solid foundation for the freedom 
of the provinces, by reconstructing them in a judicious 
confederacy, under the name of the United Provinces of 
the Netherlands, and inducing them to renounce alle- 
giance to Spain. Philip hence declared the prince an 
outlaw, and offered a reward of two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars for either his apprehension or his 
assassination. In 1584 the noble prince was shot dead 
by Balthazar Gerard, who confessed that he had been 
instigated to the deed by a Franciscan monk and a 



322 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES. 

Jesuist priest. But though the founder of the republic 
fell a victim to Romish treachery, its defence was con- 
tinued with insuperable skill and valor. Army after 
army sent against the republic was annihilated by the 
indomitable bravery of its troops, until its soil became 
the cemetery of the military strength of Spain. Its 
tolerance gave it population ; its freedom, energy ; its 
maritime contests, a knowledge of navigation ; and its 
enterprise, commerce trade and prosperity. After a 
war of thirty years, replete with heroism and magnan- 
imity, it wrung from Spain, in the Westphalia treaty, a 
full recognition of independence. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN POP- 
TUGAL AND SPAIN. 

In Portugal, under the reign of Alphonso I — SancTio 
II — Dionysus — lohn II — Emanuel — John III, 
— Sebastian — Philip II — Joseph I — Maria Fran- 
cesca Isabella — John VI — Pedro VI — and Dona 
Maria. 

In Spain, under the reign of Peccarred I — Charles V. — 
Philip II— Philip III— Charles II— Charles III. 
Charles IV. — and Ferdinand VII. 

Alphonso, in 1139, in the cause of the church and of 
national independence, subjugated the Moots of Por- 
tugal. The victor was saluted on the field by his army 
as king of the conquered dominion ; the Cortes Lamego 
invested him with regel authority ; and Pope Alexander 
III. acknowledged his legitimacy, the independence of 
the nation, and the laws and constitution which were 
prescribed. By a provision of the constitution, which 
probably sprung from the religious tolerance of the 
Moorish regime, the king was prohibited under forfeit- 
ure of the crown, from becoming tributary to any 
foreign power. But notwithstanding this proud inter- 
diction, Alphonso in the course of severe conflicts which 
afterwards took place between him and the kings of 
Castile and Leon, made his kingdom, in violation of 
his own constitution, a fief of Rome, in order to secure 
the papal support. 



324 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

In consequence of this concession to papal supremacy, 
Sancho II., in 1245, became involved in a dispute with. 
the clergy ; and upon appealing to Pope Innocent IV., 
had the misfortune to lose his crown. 

Alphonso III. succeeded to the regal dignity. Jealous 
of the rights of sovereignty, and determined to transmit 
them unimpaired to his successor, his reign was, in con- 
sequence, a perpetual contest with the intrigues of the 
clergy. Inflexibly firm and resolute, he defeated their 
artful attempts to extend their landed estates ; to obtain 
exemption from taxation ; to acquire for their persons 
and possessions an independence of secular jurisdiction ; 
and to subject the temporal to the spiritual authority 
by an insidious and gradual encroachment on the 
rights of the crown. 

Dionysus, who succeeded Alphonso III., opposed 
with prudence and firmness the papal intrigues, which 
had disturbed the peace of the kingdom from its foun- 
dation. In order to moderate the selfishness and tyran- 
ny of the first and second estates, composed of the 
clergy and nobility, he erected the cities into a third 
estate, of equal legislative authority. By elevating the 
dignity of the commonality, and taking advantage of 
the commercial resources which the geography of the 
country afforded, he awakened in the nation a spirit of 
indomitable enterprise which laid the foundation of its 
subsequent greatness. This liberal and enlightened 
policy cost him the friendship of the papal court, but he 
disarmed its malice by an admirable course of prudence 
and courtesy. 

John II. became King of Portugal in 1450. During 
his administration Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain, 



IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN. S25 

governed by the spirit of Catholic intolerance, insti- 
tuted a rigorous prosecution against the Jews, by which 
thousands of them were deprived of their fortunes, and 
driven into exile. The Jews had arisen in Spain into 
considerable political influence ; they had become farm- 
ers of the revenue ; and their characteristic avarice had 
rendered them obnoxious to the people. Instead of 
rectifying the evil by adequate measures, the crown and 
people, influenced by the church, were made instru- 
mental in gratifying its hatred against the Hebrew 
race, by a persecution as unjust as it was impolitic. 
John II., with more liberal views of government, im- 
proved the injudicious measures of Spain, to the advan- 
tage of his own kingdom. Discarding the intolerance of 
his religion, he invited the persecuted Jews to his do- 
minion ; and by affording them a peaceful asylum, added 
largely to the wealth, population, prosperity and im- 
portance of the nation. 

EmSnuel, son of John II., succeeded to the throne of 
Portugal in 1495. He married Elenora, sister of Char- 
les V., of Germany. He had imbibed the beneficent 
toleration of his sire, which had been so advantageous 
to the nation, but which was too antagonistical to the 
.spirit of Catholicism, to command its support. . The 
craft of priestly policy might conceal its hostility to 
tolerance from public perception, but machinations for 
its subversion would be no less incessantly at work. 
In the pious system of sacerdotal intrigue the amiable 
qualities of human nature are the most available, as they 
are the most insidious, and least liable to be suspected. 
Devoid of the finer sentiments of honor, the priests, in 

their capacity of spiritual advisers, scruple not to abuse 
28 



326 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

the privileges accorded them, in making the influence 
which a female may exercise over a husband, lover or 
parent, subservient to their own purposes. This species 
of ecclesiastical intrigue is illustrated m the conduct of 
Queen Elenora. Having acquired a controlling ascend- 
ancy over the king's mind, she was induced by her 
spiritual advisers to extort from him a promise that he 
would require the Jews to embrace Christianity under 
pain of being reduced to slavery for life. By whatever 
considerations, Emanuel was led to promulgate a decree 
so injurious to the national welfare, and so inconsistent 
with the tolerant spirit he had manifested, yet he had 
the humanity or sagacity to procrastinate its execution 
for twenty years, and thus to ameliorate the horrors 
with which it was fraught ; and to place the develop- 
ment of the catastrophe beyond the period of his 
administration. 

John III., son of Emanuel, was crowned King of 
Portugal in 1521. A pliant tool in the hand of papal 
intrigue, he gave a fatal blow to the tolerance and 
prosperity of his kingdom. The implacable hatred of 
the church towards the Jews, hoarded for so many 
years, now relieved of all restraint, exhibited its fiend- 
ish barbarism in deeds of exterminating cruelty. To 
escape the persecution to which they were exposed, the 
Jews practised the externals of Catholicism, while they 
secretly observed their ancient rites. The vigilance of 
the papal machinery, like a monster with a thousand 
eyes, penetrating all secrets, soon detected this evasion. 
In order to discover the persons who thus consulted 
self-preservation and the dictates of consciences, the 
inquisition was introduced, and a crusade of blood and 



IN PURTUGAL AND SPAIN. 327 

devastation preached against the whole Hebrew race. 
Their property was confiscated ; their children were 
torn from them and placed nnder Catholic control ; 
aad they themselve reduced to slavery, or subjected to 
the tortures of the inquisition. 

"While John III., during his reign, was the wretched 
instrument of Catholicism for the accomplishment of 
its atrocious designs, his grandson, Sebastian, who in 
1557, at the age of three years succeeded to the throne, 
was educated, by the express injunction of his father's 
will, by the Jesuists, and consequently was moulded to 
the same purposes, and reduced to the same flexible 
subserviency. Inclined to extravagance by temper and 
disposition, and educated by bigotry and craft, his am- 
bition became singularly whimsical ; his devotion to 
the pope absolute ; and his thirst indomitable and un- 
quenckable to engage in some enterprise in which he 
might shed the blood of infidels and heretics. When he 
arrived at majority, in order to express his devotion to 
the pope, he assumed the title of " Most Obedient 
King." At the age of twenty years his restless fanati- 
cism led him to undertake an expedition against the 
unoffending infidels of Tangiers ; and suddenly falling 
on the astonished inhabitants, gained an easy victory 
over them. The success of his forces against these 
defenceless mountaineers led him to imagine that his 
arms were invincible. Muley Mohammed having con- 
spired against his uncle Muley Moloch, the governor of 
Moroco, Sebastian conceived that by aiding the con- 
spirators with his personal valor and military forces, he 
might acquire some distinction for his name, and some 
advantages for the church. The dictates of prudence 



328 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 

and sound policy, the protestations of his ablest coun- 
sellors, and the munificent offer of Muley Moloch to 
purchase his neutrality by the cession of five fortified 
places on the coast of Africa, were feeble remonstrances 
to a mind like that of Sebastian's, in which fanaticism 
had supplanted principle, and despotism humanity. To 
popularize the hazardous undertaking, the papal ma- 
chinery began to work industriously in its favor. Col- 
lecting an army of twenty-one thousand three hundred 
men, comprised of Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, 
Frenchmen and Italians, and a fleet of one hundred 
vessels, he sailed for Africa, and landed with safety at 
the port of Alzira. Although the number and skilful 
disposition of the Moorish troops left little doubt of 
their triumph; although Sebastian's provisions were 
nearly exhausted ; although Muley Moloch, more con- 
cerned for the safety of the misguided fanatic than 
from any apprehension of the success of his arms, 
again attempted to negotiate a peace ; although some of 
the Portuguese commanders advised a. retreat, and all 
of those of the conspirators a retreat to the coast, yet 
so confident was Sebastian of the interposition of divine 
providence in aiding him to butcher the infidels, that 
he even refused to defer the engagement until the after- 
noon, in order that he might have the darkness of the 
night to cover a retreat, should such a measure become 
inevitable. Sebastian fought with distinguished brav- 
ery, yet his desperate fanaticism was equalled, if not 
surpassed, by the heroic courage of those who had been 
tortured, outraged, and exiled by his intolerance. The 
martial semicircle of the Moors enclosed his forces in a 
volume of destructive flame, and their disciplined valor 



IN PORTUGAL. 329 

and skilful manoeuvres completely annihilated them. 
The bodies of the vanquished that strewed the battle- 
field were, in general, too horribly disfigured with 
wounds to admit of their persons being identified ; and 
Sebastian's corpse being among the number, his actual 
death became doubtful. This circumstance, twenty 
years afterwards furnished the papal machinery with a 
convenient opportunity for manufacturing a bogus Se- 
bastian. But although Joseph Taxera, a Dominican 
monk, traversed Europe to enlist the imperial courts in 
its favor, yet the numerous spurious Sebastians that had 
sprung up, and the eagerness of several crowned heads 
to seize the kingdom, defeated the object of his mission. 
The controversy was finally settled by the battle of 
Alancatura, which, crowning with victory the arms of 
Philip II., of Spain, one of the claimants, subjugated 
Portugal to the dominion of Spain. 

The religious frenzy and whimsical ambition of Se- 
bastian, the result of his Catholic education, cost Portu- 
gal the flower of her nobility, the strength of her army, 
and her national independence ; overloaded her with 
debt, and degraded her under the dominion of a gov- 
ernment distracted by unsuccessful wars, and governed 
by a rapacious and unprincipled administration. "When 
John III., in 1540, introduced the Jesuists into his 
kingdom, the doom of Portugal was sealed. From 
that period, under the intolerant measures of his 
administration, its power Jpegan rapidly to decline, 
until its disastrous connection with Spain secured 
its downfall. Guinea, Brazil, the Molluccas, and all 
the fairest dominions of Portugal were wrung from 

her grasp. Spain oppressed her with rapacious tyranny ; 
28* 



330 PAPAL POLITICAL INTKIGUES 

England and the Jesuists monopolized her trade, and 
the calamities which had visited her in such frightful 
succession exhausted her resources. 

The capacity of the nation for greatness, notwith- 
standing the degradation into which she had sunk, still 
animated the patriotic Portuguese with the hopes of a 
national redenrption. In 1640 a powerful conspiracy 
was formed against the Spanish regime, and in 1750 the 
political independence of Portugal was achieved, and 
Joseph I. elevated to the throne. Duke Pombal, an 
able statesman, and the prime minister of the gov- 
ernment, regarding the Jesuists as the origin of the 
weakness and disgraces of the government, and believ- 
ing that their secrecy, dissimulation and treachery, 
absolved him from any obligation he might assume with 
regard to them, inconsistent with the public good, became 
a member of their order that he might acquire a correct 
knowledge of their principles and mode of operation, 
and be qualified to counteract their pernicious ma- 
chinations. With profound dissimulation, he so com- 
pletely deceived them that they admitted him to an in- 
timate knowledge of all their secrets, plans and de- 
signs. After having fully obtained his object he made 
a public exposition of their secrets. He disclosed 
the dangerous principles of their constitution, their po- 
litical objects, the oaths by which they were bound, 
the baseness of their intrigues, their false professions, 
their horrible deeds, and their disgraceful rapacity and 
profligacy. By the exposure which he was enabled to 
make he succeeded in having them removed from the 
important position of confessors to the king, and in- 
structors of youth in colleges. He also induced Joseph 



„ . IN /PORTUGAL. ~ '• ~ ; ' 33 1 

to expel them from the missions of Paraguay ; to 
abridge the power of the bishops ; and to prohibit the 
celebration of the " auto-da-fe" of the inquisition. 
The Jesuists not being able successfully to arrest the 
progress of reform determined to assassinate the king ; 
but failing in this attempt, the whole order fell under 
the ban of the kingdom, and were officially declared a 
political organization under the mask of religion, and 
. its members expelled from the kingdom as enemies of 
the public peace, and traitors to the government. Pope 
Clement XIII., enraged at this summary destruction of 
-the most efficient department of his machinery, endea- 
vored to intimidate the reformers by threats of excom- 
munication, and commissioned a legate to adopt any 
means to arrest proceedings against the Jesuists. But 
his legate was promptly escorted out of the kingdom; 
and as the conduct of the holy father in protecting and 
defending an organization of traitors and assassins, im- 
plicated him in the guilt of an accessory, all connection 
with the See of Eome was declared dissolved until the 
imputation should be removed by the abolishment of 
the Jesuistical order. The vanity of Pope Clement 
could not permit him to suffer such a mortification, and 
the decree of dissolution was rigorously enforced; but 
his successor, at the hazard of disproving the papal in- 
fallibility, complying with the demands of Portugal, 
amicable relations were re-established. . -- " 

On the death of Joseph I., in 1777, Maria Francesca 
Isabella, his eldest daughter, succeeded to the royal 
dignity. The superstitious temperament of this queen, 
and her natural infirmity, which terminated in con- 
firmed mental alienation; disqualified her for the' admin- 



332 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

istration of the governmental powers on sound prin- 
ciples of public policy,, and surrendered her to the 
selfish- control of a corrupt priesthood and ambitious 
nobility. By the intrigues of these two classes,, which 
seldom scruple to sacrifice the popular interest to their 
personal advantage, Pombal was deprived of his useful 
political influence, most of his regulations were abol- 
ished, and Portugal, from the dawn of a magnificent 
future, sunk into the obscurity and lethargy of her 
former condition. 

In 1817 John VI,, who had been regent during the 
imbecility of the queen, from 1795 to her death, ascended 
the throne. The spirit of French republicanism ex- 
erted a liberalizing influence over Europe generally, 
and had apparently a similar effect on the pope and his 
machinery. 

Those who did not understand the profoundity of 
sacerdotal craft might have been stupefied with as- 
tonishment to see a pope, while professing to be in- 
fallible, discarding principles and policies which had 
been approved by the practice, and defended by the 
anathemas of his predecessors. He not only sanctioned 
the prohibition of Portugal forbidding Jesuists from 
entering the kingdom, and consented to the aboli- 
tion of the inquisition, but even requested that all 
persecution against the Jews should cease, and that they 
should be admitted to greater rights and privileges. 
The popular current had set in too strongly in favor of 
change in the constitution and administration of the 
government for papal sagacity to oppose, and unob- 
structed by the sacerdotal machinery, it became daily 
augmented in volume and impetuosity. The liberal 



IN PORTUGAL. 333 

feeling of the nation, allowed spontaneously to flow, 
culminated in 1820 in establishing, without violence or 
bloodshed, a provisional government and a new cortes. 
Tolerance on the lips of a Catholic priest is treason to 
Borne ; and, though this circumstance might have cau- 
tioned prudence against investing any of them with 
power, yet as they had warmly espoused the liberal 
.cause, they were elected by the people as members to 
the cortes, with the exception of a few lawyers and 
governmental officers. At the assemblage of the cortes, 
under the presidency of the archbishop of Braga, the 
Tevolutionary measures were sanctioned, the inquisition 
forever interdicted, and a constitution framed which 
secured freedom of person and property, the liberty of 
the press, and legal equality. The king approved the 
provisions of this constitution, and swore to support 
it. But under this prosperous appearance of repub- 
lican progress, the demon of religious intolerance was 
secretly at work ; availing itself of every means to 
arrest the popular current. The portentous mutterings 
of an approaching storm were frequently heard ; and 
it was not, therefore, a matter of surprise to the friends 
of freedom, that in 1832, a regency was established at 
Valladolid, under the bishop of Lisbon, with the avowed 
object of subverting the constitution, and inviting the 
people to rally under the standard of monarchy ; nor 
that this regency was supported by the queen, Don 
Miguel, the clergy and the nobility. The machinations 
of the papal machinery had so successfully extinguished 
the popular enthusiasm which had won such important 
concessions to natural right, that no sooner was the 
standard of royalty raised, than an enormous reduction 



334 PAPAL .POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

took place in the ranks of the liberal party. So many 
priests, noblemen, soldiers and people espoused the 
royal cause, that John VI. found no difficulty in declar- 
ing the constitution of 1822, which he had sworn to 
support, null and void, and to protect his perjury and 
his treason to the freedom of the people, by disarming 
the military and the national guards. The absolutists 
then proceeded to annul all the concessions that had 
been made, in accommodation to the popular feeling ; 
they restored the church confiscated property, estab- 
lished a censorship over the press, imprisoned or ban- 
ished the liberal members of the cortes, and organized 
a junta for the purpose of framing a monarchial con- 
stitution. But Don Migual, aspiring to become absolute 
king, could not submit to the restriction of a constitu- 
tion ; and, being commander-in-chief, and exercising 
the governmental powers, excited an insurrection against 
the Lisbon cortes, and arbitrarily proceeded to banish 
all liberals, constitutionalists, freemasons, and members 
of other secret societies. That he might successfully 
remove every obstacle that imperiled his ultimate de- 
signs, he forbade all appeals to the king. But the acts 
which his ambition dictated were too reprehensible not 
to acqure for his administration a dangerous and preju- 
dicial notoriety. In spite of all precaution the rumor 
of .his tyranny penetrated the royal palace, and Don 
Miguel was summoned into the presence of the king to 
explain the reasons for his arbitrary conduct. Candidly 
acknowledging or artfully assuming that he had been 
the innocent victim of craft and misrepresentation, he 
succeeded in obtaining the king's pardon. 
- In 1826 John VI. died, and Isabella becoming regent, 



;..-. IN PURTUGAL 335 

administered the government until Pedro IV. of Brazil, 
the brother of the deceased king, could make it conve- 
nient to visit Portugal, and assume the reigns of gov- 
ernment. After having done so he established a con- 
stitution, providing two legislative chambers, and then 
abdicated in favor of his eldest daughter, Dona Maria 
da Gloria. Don Miguel, his brother, the chamberlains, 
and the magistrates swore to support the constitution. 
But the first, in violation of his oath of allegiance, 
and of his fraternal obligations, entered into a con- 
spiracy for its overthrow. With this object in view 
he organized an apostolic party, and abusing the 
power and confidence with which he was honored, 
secretly filled the army, navy, and civil offices 
with his adherents. Having matured his plans he 
caused an insurrection to break out against the queen, 
in order to enable him to seize the royal authority 
under pretense of restoring public tranquillity. Eng- 
land, however, interfering, the revolution was checked, 
and the project of usurpation frustrated. But the trea- 
sonable plot was skilfully and comprehensively laid, 
and the zealous support which it derived from the papal 
machinery soon rendered it popular with the masses. 
As if enamored of slavery and despotism, the people 
began to crowd into the ranks of the apostolic party, to 
second its declaration in favor of Don Miguel as kiug, 
to unite in its shouts of " Long live the absolute king," 
" Down with the constitutions," and to denounce, abuse 
and assault those who refused to echo its suicidal accla- 
mations. A few military garrisons which still with- 
stood the popular frenzy, and adhered to the cause of 
constitutional government, raised the standard of revolt; 



336^ PAPAL POLITICAL' INTKIGUES 

and being joined by other troops, an army was organ- 
ized which marched against Lisbon. It was met by the 
apostolic army, which greatly outnumbered it ; and be- 
ing defeated, the liberal junta was dissolved and Bon 
Miguel proclaimed absolute king. In 1834 Don Miguel 
was defeated by Don Pedro IV., and the constitution of 
1826 was re-established by the cortes. 



PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN 
SPAIN 

"We will conclude our history of Papal Political In- 
trigues, by a cursory glance at a few of its instances 
w T ith regard to the government of Spain. 

Catholicism was introduced into Spain in 586, under 
the reign of Eeccared I. ; and from that period the 
governmental affairs were controlled by the political 
intrigues of the clergy, until 711, when the kingdom 
became a province of the Caliph of Bagdad. 

The Moorish government adopted a more liberal pol- 
icy than was consistent with the spirit of Catholicism. 
It tolerated the free exercise of all religions. It per- 
mitted the subjugated to retain their laws and magis- 
trates. Agriculture, commerce, arts and science flour- 
ished under its auspices. It established libraries and 
universities ; and, from the hand of its civilization 
Europe has received the knowledge of arithmetical 
characters, of gunpowder, and of the art of manufac- 
turing rags into paper. But the Infidels who conferred 
these advantages could not conciliate the proud spirit 



IN SPAIN. * 337^ 

of the Spaniard to subjugation under foreign rule, nor 
the pope to the loss of revenues derivable from an opu- 
lent kingdom. A national struggle for indevisibility of 
empire, and primogenitureship in succession was conse- 
quently inaugurated ; and a succession of conquests, 
from 1220 to 1491, ultimated in the reduction of the 
Moors under Castellian supremacy. With the achieve- 
ment of nationality, and the discovery of South Amer- 
ica, Spain began to rank with the first powers of Europe. 
But her decline was as rapid as her elevation. Besides 
the conflicting laws and customs which prevented na- 
tional unity, and the political tyranny which oppressed 
the masses, a rigorous persecution was inaugurated 
against the Moors and Jews, compelling such as refused 
to be baptized to leave the kingdom. 

In 1520 Charles V. became king of Spain, and subse- 
quently, also Emperor of Germany. After suppressing 
an insurrection of his Spanish subjects, who demanded 
a liberal constitution, and annihilating the last vestige 
of civil liberty by separating the deliberative estates, 
he established over the kingdom a military, religious, 
and political despotism. So oppressive was his admin- 
istration, and so reckless were his expenditures, that 
although Mexico, Peru, and Chili poured a continual 
stream of wealth into the public treasury, yet excessive 
taxes had to be imposed, and enormous loans negotiated 
to satisfy the demands of the rapacious monarch. 

In 1555 Philip II. ascended the throne of Spain. 
The Catholic education of this prince fitted him bet- 
ter for a cloister than a throne. His rapacity empov- 
erished the nation, and his religious intolerance perpet- 
ually convulsed it with sedition and war. His devout- 
29 



338: PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

est wish, was to extirpate heretics, and his most pleasing 
sight was an auto-da-fe, in which he could behold his 
subjects expiring in the flames. Like Sigismund, the 
smell of burning heretics was never offensive to his 
nostrils. His inhuman and impolitic course having led 
his minister to intimate that he was depopulating his 
kingdom by his frequent massacres, he replied : "Bet- 
ter be without subjects than to reign over heretics." 
As cowardly as he was blood-thirsty, it was his custom 
when his army was engaged in battle, to retire to a safe 
retreat and pray for its success ; and whenever a victory 
was achieved to assume the head of the command, as if 
the triumph was the result of his valor and military 
skill. 

Although his Catholicism had transformed him into 
merely mechanical part of the papal machinery, without 
feeling or reason, yet when 'his truce with France was 
broken by the interference of Pope Paul IV., and his 
right to the kingdom of Naples was declared forfeited, 
he awoke from his lethargic slumbers, and commissioned 
the bloody Alva to proceed with an army to Rome and 
chastise the holy father for his insulting political in- 
trigues. The pope alarmed, and, perhaps surprised at 
the belligerent attitude of a king once so remarkably 
obedient, thought it better to consult prudence than 
the divine prerogatives of his office, and to avert the 
impending chastisement by subscribing to articles of 
peace. 

In 1169 Philip III. became invested with the royal 
dignity. By nature a tyrant, by temper a bigot, with- 
out any administrative capacity, and educated in su- 
perstition and intolerance, he seems to have been born 



IN SPAIN. 339 

for the the disgrace and destruction of the throne he 
inherited. In the most brilliant period of Spanish his- 
tory her religious despotism was prophetic of her pre- 
mature decay, and each succeeding reign verifying 
the prophecy, she now tottered on the verge of 
ruin. Favorites were allowed to waste the national 
revenues, England and Holland destroyed the Spanish 
commerce, frequent insurrections destroyed the public 
peace ; eight hundred thousand Jews, and two million 
Moors were, during this and the preceding administra- 
tion driven from the country ; and to complete the na- 
tional degradation Spain had to submit to the suprem- ' 
acy of England. 

In 1665 Charles II. succeeded to the regal authority. 
At his death, which occurred in 1700, he made Philip of 
Anjou, grandson of his sister, consort of Louis XIV., 
the sole heir of his dominion, in order to prevent the 
division of the empire, which had been resolved upon by 
France, England and Holland. This will led to the war 
of the Spanish succession, notwithstanding which the 
Bourbon, Philip V., maintained himself on the Spanish 
throne. 

In 1759 Charles III. succeeded to the tnrone of the 
Spanish, monarchy. The decaying embers of liberalism 
which had began to scintillate amid the gloom of des- 
potism, now shone forth with renewed brilliancy. Ge- 
nius and intelligence, which alone are capable of grap- 
pling with the astute principles of government, and of 
developing the latent greatness of a people, were for- 
tunately exhibited in the favorite publicists and states- 
men of the monarch. Profound and elevated views of 
political economy began to characterize the administra- 



340 PAPAL POLITICAL I-NTEIGUES 

tion ; and the true principles of commerce, the national 
importance of agriculture, arts and manufacture, and 
the best means for their development, became more 
generally understood by the government and the people. 
"With Count Florida Blanca, a man of extraordinary 
ability and activity, as ambassador at Rome, holding 
the pope in check ; with Aranda, a man of penetrating 
genius, occupying the most influential position of the 
state ; with Olavides enjoying the confidence of the 
monarch, and elaborating laws for public improve- 
ment ; and with Campomanes, a scholar of varied and 
.profound erudition, as fiscal gaent of the royal council of 
Castile, defending the enlightened policy of the govern- 
ment against the attacks of bishops ; equalizing taxa- 
tion ; and reducing the number of mendicants, the 
nation could not but increase in splendor and pros- 
perity, notwithstanding it had became involved in a 
formidable war which raged between France and Eng- 
land. By the co-operation of these patriotic statesmen, 
whose lofty spirit scowled on despotism and religious 
bigotry, a pragmatic sanction was obtained from the 
government which restricted the inquisition, banished 
the Jesuists from the Spanish dominions, and confiscated 
their property. 

But Rome and her priests could not forgive these 
benefactors of the nation, although their liberal policy 
had improved every department of government, and 
had added, amid the disasters of war, wealth to the 
treasury, and a million men to the population. Florida 
Blanca was disgraced, imprisoned, and finally banished 
to his estates. Campomanes was removed from office, 
and disgraced. Aranda, who so greatly contributed to 



IN SPAIN. 341 

public security, good order, and the abolition of abuses, 
after passing through several trying vicissitudes, was 
banished to Arragon. And Olavides, in the midst of 
his beneficent and patriotic labors was arrested for her- 
esy, and imprisoned in a monastic dungeon, 

For the better protection, perhaps, of the monarchy 
from, aggressions from without, and from insubordina-. 
lion from within, the pope, at the request of Charles 
III,, declared the Spanish monarchy to be under the su- 
pervision of the Immaculate Conception, St, James, the 
former protecting genius of Spain, was formally deposed 
from office, and the Virgin Mary duly invested with 
his authority and jurisdiction. The truth of the Im- 
maculate Conception was demonstrated beyond prudent 
dispute by the oaths of the emperor and the estates ; 
and similar oaths were made the indispensable condi- 
tion of all who should henceforth receive a university 
degree, or become a member of any corporation or as- 
sociation. As reverence for the clergy had become the 
substance of the Catholic religion, so now invocations 
to the Virgin Mary became the principal act of 
devotion. 

In 1788 Charles IV. was invested with the imperial 
dignity. In 1808 the troops of Bonaparte having en- 
tered his dominions, he welcomed them as allies, and 
shortly aftewards resigned the crown in favor of his 
son, Ferdinand VII. A month had not elapsed before 
lie secretly revoked his resignation, and finally ceded 
his right to the crown to Napoleon, who placed Joseph 
Bonaparte on the throne. Although the ministers of 
Ferdinand VII., and the greater part of the educated 

classes of Spaniards, acknowledged without hesitation 
29* 



342 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

the authority of Joseph, yet the monks and priests, 
whose principles and interests are identified with des- 
potism, in conjunction with the absolutists, and sup- 
ported by England, found sufficient available material 
in the change of dynasty, in the arrogance of the 
French, and in the national hostility to foreign domina- 
tion, to excite a general insurrection against the French 
regime, and in favor of Ferdinand VII. as king. A 
junta was established at Seville which proclaimed war 
against France, and announced an alliance between 
England and Spain. A desperate struggle was now 
inaugurated, which, through six bloody campaigns, 
rar^d from 1808 to 1814 ; during which every import- 
ant city was successively taken and lost, and every 
province was desolated and drenched in blood. Ar- 
mies after armies, on both sides, were created and de- 
stroyed with melancholy rapidity. The papal machin- 
ery held the people in such absolute control that, though 
the French gained victory after victory, abolishing as 
they triumphed the feudal privileges, the inquisition, 
the monkish order, and endeavored by the most liberal 
concessions to conciliate the popular prejudices, yet they 
retained no place which they did not garrison. Their 
ranks were constantly thinned by the secret dagger, 
their communications cut off by guerillas, and their 
wounded murdered in cold blood. Insurgent bands 
everywhere carried on the bloodiest struggles, and wo- 
men took a fiendish delight in torturing and assassinat- 
ing - the captives of war. A length the dreadful trag- 
edy was closed, by the victory of the English at 
Toulouse. 

Peace being restored to the nation the cortes assemb- 



in Spain. 343 

led, and shortly afterwards passed a resolution, declar- 
ing that before Ferdinand should be acknowledged as 
king, he should be required to swear to support 
the constitution which had been drawn up by the 
cortes of 1812, and which had been acknowledged 
by the allies of Spain. "When interrogated as to his 
disposition of complying with the demands of the 
cortes, he replied in a tone of insolent indifference : 
" I have not thought about it," To fortify the abso- 
lute power he intended to usurp he professed to abhor 
despotism, and solemnly pledged his honor to grant the 
people a new constitution, founded on liberal principles, 
and which would afford ample protection to the rights of 
person and property, and to the freedom of the press. 
But the motives which induced, him to make these 
promises did not urge him to fulfil them. While he 
nullified the old constitution, he did not restrict his 
authority by a new one ; but in the exercise of abso- 
lute power arrested the officers who served under Jo- 
seph Bonaparte, and banished them with their wives 
and children ; abolished freemasonry ; restored the Je- 
suists ; re-established the inquisition ; put liberals to 
the rack ; executed all who opposed the domineering 
pretensions of the priests ; imprisoned those who ven- 
tured to remonstrate against his measures ; incarcerated 
in monastic dungeons the members of the cortes ; and 
domineered with absolute despotism over the lives and 
fortunes of his subjects. These severe proceedings, in- 
tended to intimidate insurgents, produced disloyalty, 
confusion and anarchy. The army became dissatisfied ; 
the people insubordinate ; the country infested with 
plundering and murdering guerillas ; and, encouraged 



344 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

"by this turbulent state of affairs, four battalions, in 
1819, under Eiago, declared for the constitution of 1812. 
The progress of this revolution was strenuously opposed 
by the allied forces of the monks, the priests, and the 
absolutists. The bishop of Cienfuegos defeated it at 
Cadiz. But the people inhaling the patriotic enthusi- 
asm, arose in masses in its favor, and even the apostolics 
deserted their commanders. Ferdinand deprived of 
troops, and almost of adherents, found himself obliged 
to submit to the demands of the people. A provisional 
junta was established to conduct the public affairs, 
before which Ferdinand appeared and swore to support 
the constitution of 1812. The inquisition was abolished. 
The cortes assembled, and in a session of four months, 
endeavored by the means of moderate measures to con- 
ciliate the prejudices and interests of contending fac- 
tions, and to restore harmony and vigor to the nation. 
The clergy and absolutists, whom no concession could 
satisfy, except that of unrestricted monarchy, organ- 
ized a conspiracy for the overthrow of the constitution ; 
and as the cortes had in their reformatory measures 
abolished some convents, and banished all non-juring 
priests, they appealed to the religious frenzy of the 
people, and succeeded in creating considerable opposi- 
tion to the constitutions. In the interest of this coun- 
ter revolution an apostolic junta was established on the 
frontiers of Portugal, for the avowed design of destroy- 
ing the privileges of the crown and the clergy. Nu- 
merous bands of armed monks and peasants appeared 
in the different provinces ; and their bold assassinations 
and barbarous acts produced such universal consterna- 
tion, that the cortes declared the whole country in a 



IN SPAIN. 345' 

state of siege. It was now evident that the priests 
and monks who had stimulated the peasants to insur- 
rection had been instigated by the French government. 
But the cortes met the conspirators with skilful and 
vigorous measures, and having vanquished them in 
every engagement, succeeded finally in effecting the 
disbandment of their forces. 

In 1822 another attempt was made to subvert the 
constitution. At Soi d'Urgel, on the confines of France, 
the absolutists established a regency under the Marquis 
Mataflounda. France was the instigator of this regen- 
cy, and supported it with her influence and money. 
The army of the absolutists, composed of apostolic 
soldiers, and soldiers of the faith, were. met by the 
united strength of the nation, and overwhelmed with 
defeat. The regency fled to France. But this evidence 
of the capability and determination of Spain to main- 
tain a constitutional government, awakened into oppo- 
sition every element of despotism, not only within her 
borders, but within all Europe. The pope refused to 
receive the Spanish ambassadors. The nuncio left 
Madrid; France, Austria, and Prussia demanded of 
the cortes that they should restore to Ferdinand 
full sovereign powers, and England advised acom- 
pliance with the demand. The Duke Angouleme, 
the commander of the French forces, established a 
junta which formed a provisional government on abso- 
lute principles, and declared the acts of the cortes null 
and void. France raised an army of the soldiers of 
the faith, who were received by the Spanish clergy with 
acclamations of joy, and termed by them "Good 
Christians." The peasantry, controlled by the priests, 



346 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

espoused the cause of the absolutists, hut the army, the 
educated classes, and the people residing in cities gen- 
erally adhered to the party of the constitutionalists. 

The dictatorial interference of foreign powers in the 
internal affairs of a sovereign nation, and their attempts 
to defeat a governmental reform which they had sanc- 
tioned, and which, to achieve had cost the nation so 
much treasure, and so many valuable lives, fired the na- 
tive pride and heroism of the Spanish character, and 
united the different factions of the constitutionalists in 
a solid body in favor of their country and its liberty. 
Though few in number, without allies, and without pe- 
cuniary resources, yet they were full of energy and he- 
roic courage. The cortes repelled with patriotic indig- 
nation the insolent interposition of foreign powers, and 
prepared for the doubtful contest with consummate 
skill. As the church had been the chief cause of the 
national calamity, they appropriated its surplus plate 
to the necessity of the public treasury. "The soldiers of 
the faith, and their guerilla bands, exclusively requir- 
ing the attention of the national guards and of the 
soldiers of the line, the cortes found themselves with- 
out an efficient army to oppose the march of the French 
troops, and the apostolic forces. This serious disadvan- 
tage enabled the absolutists to march on from victory 
to victory; and though some places made a good de- 
fence, and others a stubborn and desperate resistance, 
yet others submitted with scarcely a struggle. The 
gloom which now overshadowed the prospects of the 
constitutionalists, was ominously deepened by the de- 
fection of some of their generals. But the undaunted 
firmness of the remaining leaders, and the unequalled 



p 4 7 



IN SPAIN. o 

boldness and skill which characterized their manoeuvres, 
desperately disputed inch by inch the progress of the 
monarchists, until the fall of Valencia terminated the 
eventful struggle, so honorable to the constitutionalists, 
so disgraceful to Europe, and so full of admonition to 
freemen. The bloody contests in which the liberals 
had been engaged greatly depleted their ranks, and 
now dungeons, exile, and the secret dagger nearly com- 
pleted their annihilation. Under these depressing cir- 
cumstances, the cortes invested Ferdinand with abso- 
lute power. The apostolics, the soldiers of the faith, 
the clergy and the uneducated classes, hailed him with 
acclamations of " Long live the absolute king ;" " Long 
live religion;" " Death to the nation;" "Death to the 
negroes." Ferdinand then declared null and void all 
the acts of the constitutional government, and all the 
public approvals by which he had sanctioned them. 
An attempt was made to introduce the inquisition, but 
the liberals, supported by France, and even approv- 
ed by the pope, successfully resisted the obnoxious 
measure. In 1832, the infirmities of Ferdinand having 
rendered him the dupe of designing favorites, he cre- 
ated Christina, the queen, regent for the infanta Isa- 
bella, his daughter. In 1837 the regent was obliged, 
by an insurrection, to proclaim the constitution of 
1812. In 1843, Isabella having attained her majority, 
was declared queen. The constitution, revised and 
deprived of its democratic provisions, was substituted 
for that of 1837. After the adoption of this constitu- 
tion the municipal privileges were abridged, the sale of 
the sequestered church property suspended, and extra- 
ordinary provisions devised for the support of the clergy. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

PAPAL INTRIGUES RESPECTING THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Papal Intrigues — Catholic Persecution — Protestant Per- 
secution — Catholics in the Pevolutionary War — In 
the late Rebellion — Catholic Enmity to Civil and Re- 
ligious Liberty — An Alliance formed for the Subver- 
sion of the American Republic — The Duke of Rich- 
mond's Letter — Catholic Immigration — Progress of 
Catholicism — Its Consequences — The Republic in Im- 
minent Danger — Union Only Means of Salvation — 
Conclusion. 

That the papal pretensions have been a fruitful source 
of the seditions and wars which, like successive tor- 
nadoes, have swept in fearful rapidity over Christendom, 
the records of history furnish the most unquestionable 
evidence ; yet still no one will venture the assertion 
that popish machinations have been the sole cause of 
political discords. Treason and popular disaffection 
have revolutionized and annihilated government after 
government long before the throne of St. Peter was 
established ; yet since that unfortunate period it cannot 
be denied, that whenever the causes of civil or foreign 
war became active, the sacerdotal monarchs have 
inflamed or soothed them according to the dictates of 
their interests. Through their intrigues the extermin- 
ating sword of Charlemagne compelled the Saxons to be 
baptized ; and that of Otho I. compelled the Danes to 



IN THE UNITED STATES. - 349 

accept the same rite. Through, their intrigues Clovis 
was induced, by his Catholic wife, to consent to be bap- 
tized ; and his troops who had followed him to the field 
of slaughter, were led to follow him also to the baptismal 
fount. By the same means Ethelbert, who wished to 
marry Bertha, daughter of Carobert, King of Paris, 
was persuaded to agree to matrimonial stipulations 
allowing her, upon becoming his wife, to bring her 
bishop with her, and permitting him to establish a Cath- 
olic church in the kingdom for her convenience. By 
the same artful means Ethelwolf was led to confer on 
the clergy the tithes of all the produce of the land ; 
Alfred the Great, to expel from his kingdom all the 
Danes that refused to be baptized ; Edward to accept 
the title of saint and confessor in lien of an heir to his 
throne, and to consent to abstain from nuptial congress 
with his queen ; Edward IV. to promulgate a law com- 
mitting to the flames all persons convicted of the her- 
esy of the Lollards ; and Mary L, a person of good 
natural qualities and administrative abilities, to imprison 
Protestant bishops for high treason, to confine princess 
Elizabeth in the tower, to execute Lady Jane Gray and 
her husband Guilford Dudley, to provoke the insurrec- 
tions of Cave and "Wyat, to commit to the flames two 
hundred and twenty-seven of her innocent subjects, 
and to render herself a terror to her nation. By the 
same disgraceful and impertinent intrigues the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth was perpetually disturbed with efforts 
to overthrow her government. The pop'es excommuni- 
cated her ; denied her legitimacy ; endeavored to sup- 
plant her with Mary Queen of Scots; induced the 

French to support Scotland in a rebellion against her 
30 



350 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

government; created a sedition in the north; incited 
Spain to promote a conspiracy against her, assisted by 
Florentine merchants, the Bishop of Boss, and the 
Scotchmen residing in England ; and when all these 
efforts proved abortive, to organize a conspiracy to have 
her assassinated by Anthony Babington. By the same 
disastrous intermeddling the reign of Queen Ann was 
disturbed with efforts to restore the succession to James 
the Pretender, the pope's tool for the recovery of Eng- 
land; under that of George I. the Duke of Marie- 
borough was led to proclaim the Pretender in Scotland ; 
Cardinal Alberoni, minister of Spain, to form an alli- 
ance in his favor with Russia, Sweden, France and 
Spain ; and Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, to engage 
in a conspiracy for the same object. Similar papal 
machinations have interfered with the peace of France, 
Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden, Russia, 
Poland, China, Japan, Egypt, Abyssinia, and of many 
other governments, all of which were fearfully pro- 
ductive of sedition, anarchy, war and revolutions. 

Besides these intermeddlings with the national affairs 
of all governments, the Catholic church assails all non- 
Catholics with the most execrable persecution, openly 
when she dares, secretly when she must. In her fiend- 
ish malice she counsels the violation of every principle 
of justice, of every obligation of humanity, of all con- 
tracts, of all pecuniary engagements, of all oaths, and 
urges as a duty the persecution and extermination 
of all unbelievers, by means of corporeal punishment, 
by imprisonment, banishment, murder, fire, swords, 
racks, stakes and scaffolds. Hear the truth of these 
assertions from the sanctified lips of the holy mother 
herself: 



.. IN THE UNITED STATES.- "351 

<( The Catholics believe that the Pope's authority is 
not only ministerial but supreme, so that he has the 
right to direct and compel, with the power of life and 
death." — Pec. Jacob. Mag., But. Peg. Oppos. c. 138. 

" Two swords were given to Peter, the one temporal, 
the other spiritual." — Bernard de Consed. Lib. 4 : c. 3. 

" She (the church) bears, by divine right, both 
swords, but she exercises the temporal sword by the 
hand of the prince, or the magistrate. The temporal 
magistrate holds it subject to her order, to be exercised 
in her service, and under her direction." — Bronsoris 
Rev., Jan., 1854. 

11 Both swords are in the power of the Pope, namely, 
the spiritual and the temporal sword ; but the one is to 
be- exercised by the church, the other for the church ; 
the one by the hands of the priest, the other by the 
hands of the king and the soldiers, but as the sword of 
the priest." — Pope Boniface, Corp. Jur. Con. ed. Bocher, 
tome 11 : p. 1139. 

"Civil contracts, promises, or oaths of Catholics with 
heretics, because they are heretics, may be dissolved by 
the Pontiff." — Pope Innocent X., Caron. 14. 

Engagements made with heretics and schismatics of 
this kind, after such have been consummated, are incon- 
siderate, illegal, and in law itself is of no importance, 
(although made, per chance, by the lapse of those per- 
sons into schism, or before the beginning of their heresy), 
even if confirmed by an oath, or one's honor being 
'pledged."— Pope Urban VI., Bymer 7: 352. 

" Though sworn to pay he may refuse the claims of 
a debtor who falls into error or under excommunication. 
The debtor's oath implied the tacit condition that the 
creditor, to be entitled to payment, should remain in a 
state in which communication would .be lawful. "—8t, 
Bernard, Maynooth. Report, 26Q. .... 



352 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

"There are various punishments with which ecclesi- 
astical sanctions and imperial laws order heretics to be 
punished. Some are spiritual, and effect the soul alone ; 
others are corporeal, and effect the body. . . Among 
the corporeal punishments, one which very much annoys 
heretics is the proscription and confiscation of their 
property." — Alphonso de Castro, cap. 5 : p. 98. 

"Another punishment,"' says he, "is the deprival of 
every sort of preeminence, jurisdiction and government, 
which they previously had over all persons of all con- 
ditions ; for he who is a heretic is, ipso jure, deprived of 
all things." — lb., cap. 7 : p. 1055. 

" The last punishment of the body for heretics," he 
informs us, " is death, with which we will prove, by 
God's assistance, heretics ought to be punished." — lb., 
cap. 12 : p. 123. 

But it will be said that Protestants have been guilty 
of persecution as well as Catholics. This assertion is 
unquestionably true. We confess, with regret, that 
Protestantism, although she admits the right of private 
judgment, has proved a foe to civil and religious liberty. 
But unlike Catholicism, she has made concessions; reluct- 
antly, indeed, but still she has made them. Guizot con- 
fesses that her practice has necessarily been inconsist- 
ent with her profession of toleration. She, however, 
claims not, like Catholicism, to be the source and su- 
preme controller of all political power ; nor to be the 
sole disposer of crowns and kingdoms ; nor has she 
elaborated a policy, adopted a systematic course of 
measures, and organized a clerical force for the acqui- 
sition of supreme and universal temporal and spiritual 
dominion. She has no central head, With spies penetrat- 
ing all domestic and national secrets, and communicat- 



IN THE UNITED STATES.' 353 

ing to it the information they have acquired. She has 
no political machinery ramifying every part of Chris- 
tendom, and acting in concert for the promotion of 
her interests. She has no convents, nor nunneries ; 
nor monastic vows ; no father confessors ; no religious 
confessional; no religious orders, no military knights; 
and no spiritual guides. She imposes no oaths of alle- 
giance on her priests, requiring them to adopt every 
available method of subjugating all government under 
her authority. She has no inquisition, no rack and tor- 
ture for her opponents ; no pretensions to absolve sub- 
jects from their oaths of allegiance; no interdicts to 
alarm superstitious minds by the suspension of religious 
worship in disaffected kingdoms. She has never inter- 
fered between rulers and their subjects, concocting trea- 
son, fomenting sedition, and producing anarchy. She 
has never organized armies for the extension of her do- 
minion, and for the subjugation of kingdoms to her au- 
thority. She has never butchered whole cities for 
unbelief, nor in one day put one hundred thousand 
heretics to death. She has done none of these things, 
yet her hands are not unstained with innocent blood. 
"Would they w T ere. Henry VIII., of England, perse- 
cuted with equal severity those who believed in the 
pope's right to temporal power, and those who disbe- 
lieved the other dogmas of . Catholicism. The Church 
of England, under Charles L, inflicted the most atro- 
cious punishment on the Irish Catholics ; under James 
I., on tho Puritans ; and under Elizabeth, it oppressed 
both Catholics and dissenters with tyrannical measures, 
and illiberal disabilities. The Puritan Cromwell perse- 
cuted both Catholics and Episcopalians. In Ireland he 
31* 



354 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

wasted the Catholics with fire and sword ; in Scotland 
he put whole garrisons of dissenters to death ; and as 
his schemes for obtaining the royal dignity suggested, 
persecuted Covenanters, Republicans, and Puritans. 
When Charles II. was elevated to the throne he deprived 
2000 dissenting clergymen of their livings ; and by his 
five-mile act prohibited them from approaching within 
five miles of their former parishes. But the rigor of 
Protestantism eventually relaxed its severity. Un- 
der William III. some of the disabilities which oppressed 
the dissenters were removed ; and under that of George 
III. additional toleration was accorded. Still it must 
be admitted that the ablest agents in extorting these 
concessions to religious liberty were the Free Thinkers 
of that age. Yet the Quakers, always the most respect- 
able body of citizens, and the professors of the most 
harmless of all creeds, were still punished with fines, 
confiscation, imprisonment and death. All who disbe- 
lieved in the holy trinity were also subject to similar 
persecutions. Not until 1813 did Protestant England 
cease to punish a belief in Unitarianism with imprison- 
ment, and legal disabilities. John Calvin, at the head 
of the Consistory of Geneva, had John Guet beheaded 
on a charge of attempting to overthrow the doctrines of 
the Calvinistic church ; and Micheal Servetus arrested 
and burnt alive for having attacked the doctrine of the 
holy trinity. Even in republic America, under the ele- 
vating influence of liberal institutions, the intolerant 
spirit of religious bigotry predominates more or less 
over the mind of the Christian republic. In Massachu- 
setts Baptists and Quakers were once fined, imprisoned, 
and burnt alive. - In Virginia all -Quakers that disbd- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 355 

lieved in the holy trinity, and all persons that refused 
to have their children baptized were scourged, confined, 
banished or put to death. In Pennsylvania, under the 
charter of William Penn, all Atheists were excluded 
from official position. In Maryland disbelief in the 
holy trinity was declared to be a capital offence ; and 
not until recently was any person, who professed not to 
believe in Christianity, unless a Jew, eligible to any 
■office of trust or profit in the State ; nor even to this 
day Is any person eligible who disbelieves in a God. 
The statute books of every Protestant -country bear 
testimony to the same illiberality. Humboldt, Cuvier, 
Buffon, La Place, Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, Jefferson, 
and other eminent scholars and patriots would, by the 
provisions of almost every State constitution in the 
Union, be debarred from filling the lowest office that 
they create. In fact the history of no religious sectary 
indicates it to be a bond of love, union, or concord. 
Every Protestant creed, sectary or conclave, is a per- 
petual source of mutual jealousy, animosity and perse- 
cution. The same intolerant spirit breathes its malig- 
nancy over the pages of the religious press. " If we 
are not Christians," says the Church Union, " let us 
make no hypocritical pretensions of founding govern- 
ments on Christian principles. If we are, I believe 
that they should predominate over our whole life ; let 
us have them incorporated in the basis of our govern- 
ment, and the national policy shaped by them. Let no 
one hold an office of trust or profit whose life is not 
conformably thereto." These holy ravings remind us 
of an attempt once made by the Puritans to incorporate 
the Bible into the British constitution. " The wrestlers 



356 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

with God/' as they called themselves were, deliberating 
upon a motion to repeal the laws of England, and sub- 
stitute in their place the laws of Moses and the proph- 
ets. But Cromwell averted the calamity by a peremp- 
tory dissolution of parliament, and a command to " the 
wrestlers" to go home ; nor did he think it prudent to 
call them together again. The religious politics of the 
Methodist Home Journal are similar in tone with that 
of the Church Union. This infuriated orthodox theo- 
logian says : "They that deny the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, ignore the basis on which our government is 
founded. Can they be regarded as citizens? Ought 
any man who holds to this position be admitted to — or 
permitted to hold Christian citizenship under this gov- 
ernment ? We hold that to be consistent with our- 
selves Infidelity should not be tolerated in our country, 
much less encouraged by those who openly profess and 
teach its doctrines." These assertions are the evident 
irrepressible ebullitions of innate treason to the repub- 
lic. They ingore the basis on which our government is 
founded, and, according to the logic of this fanatic the 
sect that holds them ought not to be regarded as citi- 
zens, nor permitted to hold Christian citizenship under 
this government. But the knife with which this mad- 
man would cut his own throat Infidelity would wrest 
from him. The sacred basis of our government is 
equal political and religious rights. Had Methodism 
been chosen as the basis of our government, would a 
republic have been thought of? Never! Did not 
John Wesley, its founder and spirit, oppose the Ameri- 
can revolution ? Did he not write against it, preach 
against it, and labor publicly and privately to arrest its 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 357 

progress ? Was there a man in England that inflicted 
deeper injury on the American cause? While English 
Infidels aided the struggle for independence with their 
pens, money and valor, — while English statesmen 
blushed at the barbarous conduct of their government, — 
this bigoted priest, a fugitive of justice from the State 
of North Carolina, defended it without shame or com- 
punction. Even at this day Potestant priests have 
dared to assert that Infidels have no rights which they 
are bound to respect ; but such miscreants have no 
rights, (for they surrender them by their assertions,) 
which any person is bound to respect. Such self- 
accursed, self-outlawed bigots, in conjunction with un- 
principled demagogues and political aspiring judges, 
are to-day laboring to incorporate in the national con- 
stitution the fanaticism of the Church Union and of 
the Methodist Some Journal. When their holy trea- 
son shall have become a success, liberty will forsake 
her desecrated abode ; despotism will occupy her 
temple ; and, we fondly hope that, in the course of 
coming events the fanatics will not discover that they 
have legalized their own extermination. Had Constan- 
tine the Great, thongh frenzied with ambition and 
crimsoned with guilt, beheld the boundless ocean of 
gore which was destined to flow from an incorporation 
of Christianity with the civil power, and to roll its 
heavy surge over all future time, he would have been 
more obdurate than a fiend had he not cowled his head 
in horror at the frightful vision, and dropped in mercy 
the pen already inked to inaugurate the tremendous 
catastrophe. Yet how sickening is the thought that the 
example of this ambitious tyrant, loaded with the curses 



358 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

of ages, is now attempted to be imitated by Protestant 
priests, political judges, and United States officials. 
But thanks to nature, the play of the natural principles 
of liberty in the minds of some priests, have been too 
strong to be repressed by dogmatic creeds. Gloriously 
inconsistent with their principles, they have inscribed 
their names in imperishable honor on the scroll of lib- 
erty. Thankful for the few names blazoned there, 
freedom must drop a tear over the smallness of the 
number. 

It will be asked, perhaps, notwithstanding the facts 
which have been adduced showing the political nature 
and designs of the Catholic church, what has the Amer- 
ican republic to apprehend from it ? It will be asked, 
Did not Catholics fight for the establishment of a free 
government in the revolutionary war ? Did they not 
fight to defend it in the war of 1812 ? Did they not 
fight to preserve its unity in the late rebellion? No 
well informed person will answer these questions in the 
negative ; and no candid person will fail to acknowledge 
the distinguished valor and liberality which they dis- 
played on these occasions. Catholics are men ; and the 
love of liberty is a natural principle of the human con- 
stitution. Ignorance may blind it ; prejudice mislead 
it ; and superstition overawe it ; but when the natural 
vigor of its disposition is aroused it will assert its rights 
in defiance of creeds, shackles and stakes. It is not the 
nature, but the education of Catholics, and the religious 
despotism with which they are enthralled, that has so 
often deprived freedom of their homage and allegiance. 
The frequent opposition of Catholic princes to ihe 
policy and measures of the popes, the numerous leagues 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 359 

which they have formed, and the vast armies which 
they have raised in their support, abundantly show how 
often their reverence for the pope has been displaced 
by defiance to his authority, and contempt for his pre- 
tensions. The liberal minded people of France have, 
from an early date, boldly opposed the pope's claim to 
temporal power. St. Louis IX., in 1269, declared in a 
pragmatic sanction, that the temporal power of France 
was independent of the jurisdiction of Rome. Charles 
VIII., of France, in a pragmatic sanction issued in 
1433, asserted for France, in conformity with the canons 
of the Council of Basle, independence of Rome in all 
temporal matters. Louis XIV., in 1682 convened a 
national council of the clergy at Paris, which decided 
that the Pope of Rome had no power to interfere, directly 
or indirectly, in the temporal concerns of princes and 
sovereigns ; that the usages of the French church are 
inviolable ; that the authority of the general councils 
is superior to that of the pope ; and that the pope is n.ot 
infallible in matters of faith. The popes, by the means 
of bulls, have attempted to nullify these acts, but nev- 
ertheless they form the distinctive principles of the 
Gallican Church, and also of other Catholic churches in 
different kingdoms of Europe. Thje Fenian order is 
another happy instance of the predominance which pa- 
triotism may gain, in the minds of Catholics, .over their 
reverence for the church and its despotism. 

If Catholics have at various times chastised the pope, 
deprived him of temporal authority, assaulted his per- 
son, imprisoned and deposed him, it is not surpris- 
ing that they fought in the defence of the independ- 
ence and freedom of America, No one that has an 



360 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

adequate conception of the papal policy, will be much 
astonished that the Catholics were prominent leaders in 
the revolutionary war. It was a cause in which the 
pope himself, in perfect consistency with his pretensions, 
might have personally engaged. The pope claims Eng- 
land as his fief, and denounces her kings as usurpers. 
The success of a revolt intended to deprive England of 
her colonies was as gratifying to his revenge as it was 
flattering to his ulterior designs on the colonies them- 
selves. In a republic he could plant his machinery, 
build up at will his monastic penitentiaries, erect his 
strong castle-like and secret-celled churches, leisurely 
select and occupy eligible and strategic points for cita- 
dels, and collect from every kingdom his most faithful 
and reliable subjects. Bishop Hughes asserted that 
Catholicism was friendly to republics, for they allowed 
its free development. But the development of Cathol- 
icism involves the subversion of republics, and the 
establishment in their place of political and religious 
despotism. 

The insincerity of any proposed attachment to the 
American republic by popes or priests, is attested by 
the very occurrence of the Southern rebellion. Had 
the pope and priests been opposed to it a Catholic rebel 
would scarcely have been known ; and had not the 
Catholics North and South been in favor of the rebel- 
lion, it could not have taken place. That singular and 
unnecessary intestine collision, in which the South 
gained nothing but disgrace, the North nothing but 
depopulation and empoverishment, and at the mystery 
of which leading secessionists were so much puzzled 
that they declared it to be the effects of a general 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 361 

lunacy, was nevertheless in perfect harmony with the 
profound and masterly policy of the Eoman See, which 
comprehends in its toils the events of ages, and from 
the first projection of a plot to its final consummation, 
shapes every intervening circumstance to the fulfilment 
of its grand design. The Catholics North supported 
the cause of the Union, and the Catholics South the 
cause of the rebellion with votes, money and men ; the 
rebellion, therefore, was not contrary to the teachings 
of the church. The depopulation of the native element 
of the North, the influx of foreign Catholics, the crea- 
tion of an oppressive national debt, the demoralization 
consequent on civil war, the engenderment of civil an- 
tipathies, and the supplanting of colored servants by 
white Catholic servants, were all known prospective re- 
sults of the rebellion ; were all in harmony with the 
papal designs ; and to realize which the Catholics of the 
North, and the Catholics of the South were stimulated 
by their priests to meet each in deadly conflict. 

But dismemberment could not possibly have been in- 
tended by the secret projectors of the rebellion. It 
was an impracticable idea. The geography of the coun- 
try interposed to its success an insurmountable obstacle. 
It was also inconsistent with the papal designs. But 
monarchy was not an impracticable idea. It encoun- 
tered no difficulty in the country's geography. It was 
in harmony with the policy of the Roman See. The 
Catholic blood which was poured out in such torrents 
in the civil conflicts was not intended to effect dis- 
memberment, but to create the elements conducive to 
the establishment of a monarchial government. Shortly 

after the close of the rebellion this soil, hallowed by the 
31 



362 PAPAL POLITICAL INTBIGUES 

blood, and consecrated by the sepulture of millions of 
freemen, Catholic as well as non-Catholic, was attempted 
to be desecrated by the establishment of presses for 
openly advocating that execrable treason ; and it has 
been asserted by the leaders of the late rebellion, that 
the civil war is not at an end ; but that it will again 
break out, and then the battle field will not be the 
South, but every State, city and village in the Union. 
Perhaps they mean to intimate that it will be a repeti- 
tion of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's eve. 

To those who fondly dream that the republic of 
America has nothing to fear from the pretensions of 
the Pope of Pome, and his loyal subjects, we submit 
the following extracts : 

" Heresy (Protestantism) and Infidelity have not, 
and never had, and never can have any right, being, as 
they undoubtedly are, contrary to the law of God." — 
Bronsons Rev., Jan., 1852. 

" Heresy (Protestantism) and unbelief are crimes, 
and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain for in- 
stance, where the Catholic religion is .the essential law 
of the land, they are punished as other crimes." — Bishop 
Kendrick. 

" Protestantism of every form has not, and never can 
have any right, where Catholicism is triumphant ; and 
therefore we lose all the breath we expend in declaim- 
ing against bigotry and intolerance, and in favor of re- 
ligious liberty, or the right of any one to be of any 
religion, cr of no religion, as best pleases him." — 
Catholic Iicv. y Jan., 1852. 

" Religious liberty is merely endured until the oppo- 
site can be carried into effect without peril to the 
Catholic world." — Bishop 0" Connor, of BitUburg. 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 363 

11 If the Catholics ever gain, which they surely will, 
an immense numerical majority, religious freedom in 
this country will be at an end." — Archbishop of St. 
Louis. 

11 Catholicity will one day rule America, and religious 
freedom will be at an end." — Bishop of St. Louis. 

** The Catholic church numbers one-third of the 
American population ; and if its membership shall in- 
crease for the next thirty years as it has for the thirty 
years past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and be 
bound to take the country and keep it." — Seeker. 

11 Should the said church go on increasing for the 
next twenty years, the papists will be in a majority of 
the people of the United States." — William Hogan. 

" St. Thomas Aquinas, in his second book, chapter 3, 
page 58, says: * Heretics (non-Catholics) may justly be 
killed.' But you will answer, there is no danger of 
this. They can never acquire the power in this coun- 
try to sanction that doctrine. How sadly mistaken 
are you ! How lamentably unacquainted with the se- 
cret springs or machinery of popery." — William Hogan. 

Quoting from an author Hogan writes : 

" America is the promised land of the Jesuists. To 
obtain the ascendency they have no need of Swiss 
guards, or the assistance of the holy alliance, but a ma- 
jority of votes, which can easily be obtained by the 
importation of Catholic voters from Ireland, Austria, 
and Bavaria. ... I am not a politician, but knowing 
the active spirit of Jesuitism, and the indifference of 
the generality of Protestants, I have no doubt that in 
ten years the Jesuists will have a mighty influence 
over the ballot box, and in twenty will direct it accord- 
ing to pleasure. Now they fawn, in ten years they will 
menace, in twenty command." — Synopsis, p. 106. 



364 PAPAL POLITICAL NTEIGUES 

In the above quoted authorities we have a unanimous 
declaration of Catholic bishops, priests and periodicals, 
that the Catholic church is radically opposed to reli- 
gious liberty ; that she regards Protestants and Infidels 
as criminals ; that whenever she obtains the political 
power she punishes them as such ; and that the success 
of her policy and measures in this country has been 
sufficient to justify her expectation, that in 1900 she 
will be enabled to accomplish all her bloody and trea- 
sonable designs. That these hopes are not altogether 
chimerical, we have also the reluctant and alarming 
concessions of her opponents. Those who abuse liberty 
should be deprived of its benefits ; and those abuse it 
most who take advantage of its generous indulgence to 
plot for its destruction. The rights of toleration sub- 
sist only by mutual consent ; their obligations are re- 
ciprocal ; and whenever the silent compact is violated 
by one party, the other is exonerated from its obliga- 
tions. No man possesses a right which is not possessed 
by another ; nor has he any authority for claiming for 
himself that which he does not concede to others. 
When, therefore, the Catholic priests proclaim that 
Protestantism in any form has no right where Cathol- 
icism is triumphant, they surrender their rights where 
Protestantism in any form is triumphant. When they 
assert heresy and unbelief are crimes, and where the 
Catholic religion is the essential law of the land, are 
punished as crimes, they authorize heretics and unbe- 
lievers to consider Catholicism a crime, and where her- 
esy and unbelief are the essential law of the land, to 
punish Catholics as criminals. When they say that 
Catholicity will one day rule America, and then religious 



IN THE UNITED STATES, 365 

liberty will be at an end, they appeal to the instincts of 
self-preservation, and justify freemen in adopting any 
measure that is necessary to render their avowed trea- 
son and destructive ^ designs abortive. They assail the 
fundamental principles of the Constitution, and forfeit 
all right to its protection. Neither Protestants nor In- 
fidels may be disposed to avail themselves of the privi- 
leges of these concessions, while forbearanc e is a virtue ; 
but they may be provoked to consider the further tol- 
erance of the Jesuists in this country as inconsistent 
with the peace and stability of the republic. 

As the treasonable designs of the Catholic priests are 
undeniable, it is important to understand by what 
means they expect to accomplish their infamous pur- 
poses. The subjoined letter of the Duke of Eichmond, 
formerly Governor-General of Canada, will explain 
their policy, their system of measures, and the co-opera- 
tion which they are to receive from the sovereigns of 
Europe. " It (the American republic) will be destroyed" 
says he, " it ought not, and will not be permitted to exist. 
The curse of the French revolution, and subsequent 
wars and commotions of Europe, are to be attributed 
to its example, and so long as it exists no prince will be 
safe on his throne, and the sovereigns of Europe are 
aware of it, and they are determined on its destruction, 
and they have come to an understanding on the subject, 
and have decided on the means to accomplish it; and 
they will eventually succeed, by subversion rather than 
by conquest. All the low and surplus population of 
the different nations of Europe will be carried into that 
country. It is, and will be, the receptacle of the bad 

and disaffected population of Europe, when they are 
31* 



366 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

not wanted for soldiers or to supply navies ; and the 
governments of Europe will favor such a cause. This 
will create a surplus majority of low population, who are 
so very easily excited, and they will "bring with them their 
principles, and in nine cases out of ten adhere to their 
ancient and former governments, laws, manners, cus- 
toms and religion, and will transmit them to their pos- 
terity, and in many cases propagate them among the 
natives. These men will become citizens, and by the 
constitution and kws be invested with the right of 
suffrage. Hence discord, dissension, anarchy and civil 
war will ensue, and some popular individual will assume 
the government, restore order, and the sovereigns of 
Europe, the immigrants, and many of the natives will 
sustain him. The church of Rome has a design on this 
country, audit will in time he the established religion, and 
it will aid in the destruction of the republic. I have 
conversed with many sovereigns and princes of Europe, 
and they have unanimously expressed their opinion 
relative to the government of the United States, and 
their determination to subvert it." According to this 
admonitory letter an alliance has been formed by the 
European powers and the Pope of Eome, for the sub- 
version of the American republic, the substitution of a 
manarchy in its place, and the establishment of Cathol- 
icism as the national religion. Had the Duke of Rich- 
mond been silent, still no well informed person could 
doubt that all the European sovereigns, whether Pro- 
testant or Catholic, would act upon the avowed prin- 
ciple of the Holy Alliance in their conduct with regard 
to North America. Would England consent, it may be 
asked, to ally herself with the papal despot ? Why 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 367 

not ? She has done so before ; in the recent troubles of 
the Roman See she sent her war vessels to protect the 
pope ; and she assented to the principles of the Holy 
Alliance, which was for the extinguishment of all free- 
dom in Europe. The good sense of the English people 
would never have recognized a policy which inevitably 
involved their own destruction ; but they are a cypher 
in the great account of the short-sighted government. 
That England heartily co-operates with the papal 
priests in their infamous work, may be learned from the 
subjoined extract of the Dublin Evening Mail, elicited 
by the news from America that certain teachers had 
been dismissed from a school of the West on account of 
their foreign birth. &c. : " The foreign birth and Roman 
Catholic proclivities of the teachers thus dismissed," 
says he, " are sufficient evidence that they have been 
imported into the United States by the Church of Rome, 
with a view to pervert the secular education of the 
country to the purposes of proselytism. They are, in 
fact, emissaries of the College de Propaganda Fide, and 
have been trained and qualified, no doubt, by its edu- 
cation, to carry out abroad the principles it has been so 
successful in disseminating here in Dublin. The pope 
has not a more efficient free-handed institution at his bach 
than the imperial parliament of the united kingdom, 
which spares no expense to furnish his holiness with 
zealous and well informed agents for the spreading of 
his dominion over the face of the globe. Does he re- 
quire priests to publish and extend it wherever the 
English language is spoken, the halls and dormitories 
of Maynooth are enlarged, and their larder abundantly 
replenished to keep a constant supply of young ecclesi- 



368 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

astics for his service. Do these in turn send home a 
requisition for more teachers to assist them in their 
work, the Chancellor of the Exchequer adds some ten 
thousand pounds for his yearlg estimate for national edu- 
cation in Ireland, and continued re-enforcements of 
propagandists are thus maintained, in readiness to move 
in obedience to the call, whenever Rome may need their 
service." 

According to the Duke of Richmond's letter, one of 
the means by which the tyrant of Rome and his col- 
leagues have adopted for accomplishing the downfall of 
the government of the United States, is that of foreign 
immigration. Let us examine the operation of this 
device. The editor of the Louisville Journal, in dis- 
cussing the question of foreign immigration, makes the 
following statement : " In 1850 our native white popu- 
lation was about 17,300,000. In the same year our 
foreign population was about 2,300,000. In 1852 the 
immigration was about 398,170. At that rate it would 
take only about six years to double the foreign popula- 
tion here in 1850. This is about five times our popula- 
tion's increase, which is in a ratio of three or four per 
cent, per annum, while the increase of foreigners is from 
fourteen to sixteen per cent, on the census of 1830, 
1840, and 1850. 

" In 1852 our presidential vote was about 3,300,000. 
In 1848 it was about 2,880,000. In 1852 our foreign 
arrivals, as shown, were about 400,000, and 240,000 of 
these were males, thus showing that in one year, the 
arrivals of foreign males into this country, was nearly as 
great as the increase of our whole voting population 
during four years." 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 369 

The foreign arrivals by sea alone were — 



In 1850 


315,333 


" 1851 


403,828 


11 1852 


398,470 


" 1853 


400,777 


From Canada and Mexico during the same 


period about 


700,408 



2,118,408 

It appears from the census of 1850 that the total ag- 
gregate of foreign population of the United States in 
1849 was 2,210,829. If the tide of immigration has 
added but two millions to the number of the foreign 
population every four years since 1849, it must have 
amounted, in 1869, to 7,210,829. 

All the immigrants are not, however, Catholics. Some 
are Protestants, some Infidels, and some Kadical Repub- 
licans. The Turners, the Free Germans, and the mem- 
bers of the Eevolutionary League are all firm friends of 
free governments. The proportion of Catholics among 
the immigrants, at a fair computation, is presumed to be 
about three-fourths of the entire number. They must, 
therefore, add to the Catholic^ numerical strength about 
3,750,000 at every decade 

Besides the numerical augmentation of the Catholic 
church through the medium of foreign immigration, 
there are other appliances acting powerfully in its favor. 
''It is not long," says William Hogan, " since I saw a 
letter from the Catholic bishop Kendrick, of the diocese 
of Massachusetts, in which he informs the authorities 
of Rome that he is making converts of some of the first 



370 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 

families in the diocese." — Synopsis, p. 169. " I have 
often conversed," says he, "with American Protestants 
on this subject, and regret finding many of them — espe- 
cially those of the Unitarian creed — are strong advo- 
cates of popery, and in favor of its introduction among 
the people." John L. Chapman, a. Methodist clergy- 
man, in a work written before the Southern outbreak, 
says in substance, according to my recollection, that a 
Methodist j^reacher cannot now address his congrega- 
tion upon the subject of Catholicism with the same 
freedom he could formerly ; that those who imagine a 
Methodist preacher can now utter in the pulpit, or at a 
tract or bible meeting, the sentiments of John Wesley 
respecting popery, are entirely mistaken ; and that 
those who suppose that an editor of a Methodist peri- 
odical can now assail the errors of Catholicism without 
the loss of subscribers, are laboring under a great delu- 
ions. While the pulpits, revivals, and evangelical en- 
terprises are making no converts of any account among 
Catholics, the confirmation services of the Catholic 
bishops show the great number of adult non-Catholics 
which they are adding to their church. The number 
of children kidnapped, and the extraordinary number 
confirmed by Catholic bishops, might suggest a suspi- 
cion that the church has not abandoned its historic 
mode of adding to its members. Every non-Catholic 
child educated in a Catholic school becomes a Catholic, 
or strongly biassed in favor of that church. We hear of 
Protestant priests, and sometimes of Protestant bishops, 
and of whole bodies of theological students becoming 
Eoman Catholics. 

It is an undeniable fact that the annual increase of 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 371 

the Catholic population far outstrips that of the non- 
Catholic population ; and that at some future period its 
numerical strength will be capable of deciding in favor 
of the church every election that takes place. When 
that unfortunate hour arrives every policeman, council- 
man, mayor, judge, governor, delegate, congressman, 
senator, president, civil official, army or naval officer 
will be a Catholic. Then the non-Catholics wiiV be 
powerless, and at the mercy of those who believe they 
have no rights. Then, by the secret operation of the 
papal machinery, one faction will be inflamed against 
another, and one section of the land against another. 
Then rapine, violence, assassination, sedition, massacre — 
everything that can render life and property insecure — 
will distract every state, city and village in the Union. 
Then, amid the anarchy and confusion thus produced, 
some Catholic tyrant will arise, and — the civil disorders 
subsiding at the bidding of the pope — will be pro- 
claimed dictator. Supported by the Catholic and Pro- 
testant kings of Europe, he will abolish the republic, 
and establish in. its place a Catholic monarchial gov- 
ernment. Then, according to Bronson, heresy and 
Infidelity will be declared to have no rights. Then, 
according to Archbishop Kendrick, Protestantism will 
be declared to be a crime, and punished as such. Then, 
according to the archbishop of St. Louis, religious lib- 
erty will no longer be endured. Then, according to 
Hecker, the Catholic church will be bound to take the 
country, and keep ifc. Then inquisitions will be intro- 
duced, and stakes erected. Then the darkness of the 
middle ages will settle over the land. Then the school- 
houses, the colleges, the asylums, and the churches built 



372 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

with Protestant funds will be applied to Catholic pur- 
poses. Then the fortunes which non-Catholics have 
amassed will be confiscated. Then the territorial acqui- 
sitions of the Government, all its resources, all the ad- 
vantages it has acquired by arms and treaties, its navy 
and its army, will become the property of the papal 
monarchy, and applied to its defence and extension. 
Then it will be the business of Americans, not to create 
magistrates, but to obey despots ; not to share in the 
sovereignty of the government, but to toil in slavery to 
support an execrable despotism. Then liberty of speech 
and freedom of the press will be no more. Then the 
ecclesiastical dungeons, which the supineness of Amer- 
icans have allowed Catholicism to erect among them, will 
be the homes and graves of freemen. Then will arise a 
government constructed of schemes for public plunder ; 
where an aristocracy are privileged robbers ; where 
moral worth and dignity are the helpless victims of 
power and injustice; where laws are made for subjects, 
not for rulers ; and where the people are inherited by 
royal heirs, like so much land and cattle. Then will 
the monarchial demon, the God of slaves and aristocrats, 
seated on the people's throne, with his feet on the 
people's neck, quaff blood like water ; and eye with 
scornful indifference the squalid millions whom he has 
doomed by an enormous taxation to huddle in hovels, 
without light or air, with cloathing scarcely enough to 
hide their nakedness, with food scarcely enough to sus- 
tain life, or nre scarcely enough to keep them from 
freezing. 

When the pope shall have succeeded in his attempts 
to establish such a monarchy over the American people, 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 373 

lie will next proceed to enlarge its dominions by the 
annexation of Canada, Mexico, all South America, and 
all the Pacific and Atlantic islands. With such a do- 
minion, such resources, such an army and navy, he will 
be master of the land and the ocean. He will then 
proceed to plunder and discrown the very kings that 
had assisted him in erecting his colossal power. He 
will then enforce, by the thunders of American moni- 
tors and war steamers, his claim to the crowns of Eng- 
land and Russia ; his claim to be the disposer of all 
crowns ; his claim to be the only monarch that ought 
to wear the token of royalty ; in fine, his claim to the 
supreme temporal and spiritual monarchy of the world. 
Then England will awake, but it will be in the vengeful 
folds of a serpent crushing out her life. Then the Euro- 
pean despots will awake, but it will be amid the crumb- 
ling of their thrones. Then the papal allies will awake, 
but it will be to find their limbs fettered, and the foot 
of the sacerdotal monarch placed in malignant triumph 
upon their necks. Then the world will awake, but it 
will be to find that it has suffered the extinction of the 
last star of liberty, and involved itself in a night of 
despotism without the hope of a morn. 

But the spirit of freedom is immortal ; its conflict 
with despotism will be eternal. Bolts, dungeons, 
shackles cannot confine it ; racks, flames and gibbets 
cannot extinguish it. To annihilate it, the most formid- 
able efforts of bigotry, the most ingenious arts of states- 
men, the combined power of church and state, have 
been applied in vain. Though the blood of freedom's 
sons have streamed in torrents, and the smoke of their 

stakes have darkened the face of heaven, yet their 
32 



374 PAPAL POLITICAL INTEIGUES 

spirit has still walked abroad over the world. "So it has 
been in the past ; so it will be in the future. If the 
Catholic demon should massacre all the freemen in one 
age, they will rise up more powerful in the next; and 
successively as time rolls on, shake with their energy the 
accursed throne. Hence civil war will never cease, 
fields will eternally reek with gore, burning cathedrals 
and convents will illuminate the night, till the world, 
instructed by its past errors, will unite in a natural 
union for the extinguishment of Catholicism. 

"We have now alluded to the dangers which begin to 
'blacken our political firmament. Can the storm be 
averted? We believe it can. A union of the Protest- 
ants, Jews, Spiritualists, Free Religionists, Infidels, 
Atheists, Turners, Free Germans, and of all non-Catho- 
lics, without regard to creed, race or color, on a basis of 
universal civil and religious liberty, with a judicious 
policy, and a corresponding system of measures, will 
prove adequate to the emergency. Such an organization, 
if sufficiently liberally constituted, might command the 
support of Gallic and Fenian Catholics. The life, lib- 
erty and welfare of all non-Catholics, if not, indeed, of 
the Fenians and Gallicans themselves, are in equal dan- 
ger, and why should they not organize for mutual 
safety? Does prejudice forbid it? Millions of lives 
must be sacrificed if a union be not effected. Who 
would, then, hesitate to sacrifice a prejudice that it may 
be effected ? A tyrant may demand concessions with- 
out rendering an equivalent, but freemen can not. 
Can Americans sleep in peace, while the clang of the 
hammers that are forging their chains are sounding in 
their ears, and the pillars which support their govern- 



IN THE UNITED STATES. 375 

ment are tottering over their heads ? It seems impos- 
sible. Their obligations to their country, to posterity, 
to the world, demand union. Union or slavery ; union 
or confiscation ; union or the rack, the stake, the gibbet. 
One or the other is inevitable. Which do you now 
chose ? A few more years hence you will have no 
choice. 

Every citizen knows that under the present form of 
government his merits have rewards, and his industry 
has encouragements enjoyed by no people in any 
country, or under any other form of government. The 
poorest and the richest are here accorded equal chances, 
equal privileges ; and an equal voice in selecting 
legislators, judges and rulers. They are equally un- 
trammelled by legal impediments in seeking the highest 
positions in the government. Each citizen is an inte- 
gral part of the sovereignty of the nation ; he partici- 
pates in its management, and shares its greatness and 
glory. It is a consolation enjoyed only by an Ameri- 
can, that if fame nor fortune should gratify his ambi- 
tion, he can still bequeath to his children a richer 
inheritance than that of either fame or fortune, the 
inheritance of a free government. Judging of the 
future by the past, it is his privilege to believe that the 
republic will continue to grow in power and greatness 
with each succeeding age, until the light of her glory 
shall fill the earth ; until despots shall tremble before 
the majesty of the people ; until the clank of slavery, 
and the groan of the oppressed shall no more be heard ; 
and until the united world shall rise to the majesty 
and greatness of equal privileges, equal rights and 
equal laws. 



376 PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES 

Such are the blessings guaranteed, and the expecta- 
tions warranted by the continuance of the republic ; but 
monarchy, like a deadly blast, annihilates them. all. 
With the liberty, it lays the greatness and glory of the 
nation in the grave. Intolerance will then re-establish 
its racks and torture. Industry will then be oppressed, 
and enterprise annihilated. This land, which has so 
long resounded with the song of liberty, will then re- 
verberate with the clanking irons of servitude. This 
nation, which is now the wonder and glory of the earth ; 
which is so powerful and prosperous ; this nation will 
be no more. Her life and splendor will have departed 
with her freedom. History may record her eventful 
story ; her sons may clank in chains around her tomb ; 
future freemen may curse the degenerate sons who 
wanted the valor or unanimity to transmit to their pos- 
terity the government which they inherited from their 
ancestors ; but these will not call her to life and glory 
again. Like a wave she will have rolled away ; like a 
dream, she will have departed ; like a thunder peal, 
she will have muttered into eternal silence. Like 
these she had but one existence, and that will then 
have ended. 



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